Digital Destinies
by NatNicole
Summary: The seven Warriors saved the Digital World. One year later, the eight DigiDestined did the same. Now it is time for the two groups to join together, teaming up to save the two worlds once more. (02 AU, seasons 1, 2 and 4 crossover.) Rating K / T due to mild violence.
1. Episode 1

**Ep. 1. Frozen fury**

* * *

_"Melted Wax!" some Candlemon yelled, sending a bunch of wax at 11 years old Takuya Kanbara, who was in the form of the Warrior of Flame Agunimon. He got half-covered in the wax, sticking him to the ground._

_"I c-can't move," he grunted._

_"Come on! I w-wanna help," an 8-year-old boy with short-cropped mousy hair mostly covered by his pale orange pumpkin cap cried, looking desperately at a bulky white device that had a green grip – his D-tector. Next to him were a blond 11-year-old girl, Zoe Orimoto, and a chubby 12-year-old boy, Junpei "JP" Shibuyama._

_"Give it up, shrimp. There's no way you'll ever get a Spirit. I guess it's up to me," JP said as he began to press buttons on his blue and yellow D-tector._

_The younger boy let out a huff, before jumping over the edge of the cave mouth they were at and sliding down into the river._

_"Tommy!" Zoe cried._

_Tomoki Himi took off his hat and filled it up with water and threw it at the Candlemon. "I will never be a scared little kid ever again! Lights out for you meanies," he growled, throwing more water at the Digimon._

_Suddenly, light came from behind Zoe and JP in the ice cave, and a teddy bear shaped something zoomed past them and flew over to Tommy. It stopped in front of him and turned the river into ice._

_Tommy just gazed at it before his eyes widened for a moment. He smiled and made a grab for his D-tector, and pointed it at the object._

_"SPIRIT!" he screamed as the bear came zooming at his D-Tector, entering it through the little red square on top that was the scanner._

_Smiling, Tommy held forward his left hand as a ring of fractal coded data appeared around his hand. He dragged it against the scanner of his D-tector, yelling: "Execute" A strip of data came from his D-tector. "Spirit Evolution!" he yelled as the data looped around him and the bear shape appeared over him, the little boy getting completely covered in a fractal code cocoon. When it disappeared, in his place was a white bear not much bigger than Tommy had been, wearing some green armour._

_"Kumamon!"_

_"Kumamon, the Warrior of Ice," Bokomon said, looking at his book._

_"Nice," Neemon giggled._

_Kumamon ran forward and took in a big breath of air before jumping up as high as he could._

_"Crystal Freeze!" he yelled and blew an icy gust from his mouth that froze three of the Candlemon._

_Suddenly, a huge wave came from the river and covered everyone as the dream abruptly ended and a girl's voice could be heard laughing…_

"Aargh!" 12 years old Tommy screamed, sitting up and opening his eyes. He wiped the water off his face and saw that he was in his bed, in a somewhat familiar room. Eventually he remembered – it was his new bedroom! The one he had lived in ever since last November.

Tommy turned and saw his cousin, Sakura Himi, laughing at him. Like Tommy, Sakura had forest green eyes. Part of her short auburn hair was tied to a little ponytail hanging from the left side of her head. She was dressed in her usual attire consisting of white wristbands, denim blue shorts that were turned up a little from the bottom, a white bandanna tied around her head like a sweatband that had her bangs hanging over it, and a black T-shirt with a navy blue horizontal stripe and same coloured sleeves.

In her hand, Sakura – or Sara as she usually was called – held a glass that had undoubtedly been emptied to her cousin's face. He glared at her.

Sara stopped laughing and smirked as she said: "That was for staying up all night playing those stupid videogames. Mum said I have to wake you up so you won't be late. FYI, I won't be babysitting you at school even if it is new to you. The first school day sucks enough, so you're gonna be on your own, got it?"

Well used to his cousin's somewhat cold demeanour, Tommy just nodded. He knew perfectly well how to look after himself.

Sara marched out of the bedroom, leaving Tommy to hurry up getting ready. He jumped out of bed and grabbed his old pumpkin hat off the floor, placing it on his head backwards – something his role model Takuya Kanbara had always done. Tommy grabbed a dark green backpack and threw in a Gameboy, a few empty notebooks and a pencil case.

For a few minutes he hesitated when he slowly took his old D-tector from the cupboard of his desk. The last thing Tommy needed at a new school was something to remind him of his times as the Warrior of Ice – he missed those times so much.

"I'll take it anyway," Tommy said to Sara's pet dog Max, who had come into the room and was looking at what his owner's cousin was doing. The puppy barked in what Tommy considered an encouraging little yap. Tommy lifted the device from the cupboard, before looking at his white digital watch and realizing he should hurry.

"Oh crap! I'm gonna be late!" he exclaimed, rushing to his closet.

Unknown to Tommy, Sara was in the kitchen calmly eating breakfast with her parents. "Did you put Tommy's watch ahead again?" Mrs Himi asked.

"What makes you say that?" Sara asked in a seemingly innocent way as her cousin rushed out of his room and soon was out of the apartment.

"No reason," Mrs Himi replied with a knowing smile, getting back to her bacon and eggs.

* * *

Meanwhile, at another apartment complex…

A 12-year-old boy with azure eyes and messy blond hair made his way out of his bedroom with his dark blue backpack loaded with things he would need for school. He wore a green and yellow turtle-neck shirt, a white bucket-like hat, and green shorts. The blond had a bright smile on his face as he made his way to the front door.

"Bye, Mom! I'll be leaving now," he shouted over his shoulder, slipping on his green sneakers.

"Bye, honey. Sorry I couldn't make breakfast this morning. This article is more difficult than I perceived," she shouted back from inside of her office.

"Don't worry about it." Her son chuckled and made his way out the door. He walked down the hall to the elevators. He was surprised to be greeted by two other students also riding the elevator. One of them was a little taller than him, maybe a year older. Her lavender hair was held back by her blue bandanna. She also wore a crimson dress, a matching T-shirt over a red shirt, and light purple stockings. Her companion was a small boy with short-cropped mousy hair combed neatly. He was dressed in a simple violet shirt and grey trousers.

"Oh, hello," he said, stepping inside and pressing the lobby button to make the doors close. "I'm Takeru Takaishi and in 6th grade. Call me TK."

The lavender-haired girl wearing glasses looked at him and smiled. "Hi, I'm in 6th grade too. My name's Yolei Inoue." She pointed to the young boy as she continued: "This is Iori Hida, 3rd year."

"You can call me Cody, that's what Yolei does. It's very nice to meet you," the brunette responded with a polite bow.

The trio made their way to school, Yolei and Cody chatting along the way. "Hey, Yolei, can you come to my place after school? My computer's broken again."

"Will your mum make those lovely chocolate brownies?"

"I'll call her after school and ask."

"Perfecto!"

TK couldn't help smiling after that conversation. Apparently, Yolei must know a lot about computers. This reminded him of Koushiro Izumi, or Izzy as everyone called him, one of his close friends who was only a year older than him. If he or his friends had trouble with their computer, they always would ask Izzy to help.

As he entered the school grounds, TK passed by a group of boys playing soccer and asking an auburn-haired girl his age (Sara) to play with them. "Fine," she said a little grudgingly, but this didn't seem to bother the boys.

_No wonder,_ TK thought, seeing her play as good as any of the boys and better than most of them. He walked on and saw someone sitting on a bench by one of the school's walls.

It was Tommy. He was playing his Gameboy, completely oblivious to the people passing by him. Smiling in his usual cheerful way, TK decided to go say hi. "Hi, there. My name's TK, I'm new here. Who're you?"

Tommy looked up and grinned. "Tommy. I'm new here too. So you've recently moved here?"

"Yeah. Mum got a job transfer. You?"

Tommy's smile faded a little. "Parents died six months ago in a car accident. I live at my uncle's now," he muttered.

"Oh. Sorry," TK said with an apologetic smile.

Grinning again, Tommy said: "It's all right, my friends helped me to get over it. I've got a cousin and she and I are like siblings so it's not so bad. And my friends often come visit from my old home area Shibuya or we go over there."

"Cool. I have close friends too. They live here while I lived away on my own, so I haven't seen them for the last three years."

"Bummer. Hey, what class are you in?"

The bell rang at that moment. Tommy shoved his Gameboy into his backpack and ran off, TK right behind him. They arrived at the door of classroom 6-D just in time, and were noticed by their first new teacher.

"Class, we have two new students in this class," the teacher said, gesturing towards the door.

Tommy and TK entered, removing their hats, and at once half the girls in the classroom started giggling and staring at them. In their opinion, the new guys were very cute.

Tommy sweatdropped, not used this kind of attention. He spotted his cousin rolling her eyes and chuckled lightly before bowing and introducing himself: "Hi, I'm Tommy."

"And my name is TK," the blond beside him said, also bowing.

"TK you can go sit next to the girl with the camera hanging from her neck. Tommy, there's a free place next to your cousin," the teacher said, ignoring the scowl on Sara's face.

The new boys took their seats, coincidentally ending on the opposite sides of the small aisle, next to each other. The brunette with the camera smiled at TK. She wore a pink tank top, matching gloves that nearly reached to her shoulders, and yellow shorts with a leather belt. Her short light brown hair was neatly combed, and her eyes were chocolate-red.

"Together again," she said to TK as he sat down.

"Just like old times," the blond replied with a grin.

The lesson was soon on full swing, and Tommy sighed in boredom as he rested his head on his arms that he had crossed atop his desk. Maths was _not_ his best subject.

Glancing at Sara, he saw that she, although just as bored as Tommy, was better at pretending to pay attention. The Warrior of Water was doodling into her notebook, but would glance at the board every now and then to make it seem like she was writing notes.

"So… bored…" Tommy muttered under his breath, half-hoping that his Beast Spirit Korikakumon would suddenly barge in to cause a commotion. He chuckled at the thought, making his cousin look at him oddly.

Tommy glanced at TK happily whispering with that camera girl, and heard him say in a low voice: "Our teacher reminds me of Ogremon." In response, the girl giggled quietly.

_Ogremon? Is that a Digimon? And if it is, how can TK and his friend know about them? _Tommy thought, sitting up. He poked Sara's arm.

"What?" she snapped quietly.

Knowing TK would probably hear him whisper, Tommy scribbled a note. 'Those two next to us know about Digimon. TK mentioned an Ogremon.'

Sara looked at the note in shock and then at her two classmates. They seemed to be working. "I'll investigate after school," she whispered to Tommy.

* * *

So after school, Sara burst in on the brunette and the blond when they were at their lockers before heading home.

"–been on the computer the whole time," TK was saying as he finished his sentence.

"Hey, you two," Sara said with a scowl, not bothering to be polite. It annoyed her, but she had picked up Takuya's habit of not beating around the bush and talking directly instead.

"Oh, hi, Sara," the brunette said with a friendly smile. She had been in Sara's class ever since primary school, but the two girls never interacted apart from the time the brunette had been nice to Sara one day. Sara knew her name was Hikari Kamiya, or Kari as she preferred.

"Hey!" another sixth-grader girl called as she ran in.

"Oh, hi, Yolei," TK greeted her.

"You're Kari Kamiya aren't you?" Yolei inquired as she approached the other girl.

"Yeah, that's right," Kari agreed. "Why do you ask?"

"Well," Yolei paused slightly as she pulled out a folded sheet of paper. "Are you related to Tai? He sent this e-mail."

Kari took a quick look at the paper, her face pulling downward into a serious frown. "My brother needs us," she stated.

Soon they were all off to the computer lab and on the way they ran into a boy in a green high school uniform with short red hair.

"Koushiro!" Yolei exclaimed, surprised.

"Hey, Yolei," the high schooler said, "I'm glad I found you. I need to use the computer room right away."

"You mean the legendary former computer club president is actually looking for me?" Yolei swooned, "I'm honoured." Sara rolled her eyes, thinking Yolei must be a computer geek.

"What's up, Izzy," TK greeted the redhead.

"Tai sent us an urgent e-mail," Kari stated, stepping forward to show the older boy the paper Yolei had given her.

"Yeah, I know," Izzy said grimly, "I got one too."

Yolei then led them all to the computer room where Izzy set to work at one of the stations. "I was just about to send Tai an answer when the battery ran out on my computer," Izzy informed them. "I knew I should have recharged it after I played trigonometry trivia on the Internet last night. But boy, talk about fun… I got 'em!"

"What's the Digital World?" Yolei inquired as Izzy sent Tai a return message. "Is that a new amusement park? I bet they have some great rides."

Sara kept her face in check to hide her surprise. _This guy knows too?!_

"Hey, guys," Yolei said to gain their attention. "I've got an idea! Let's all go to the Digital World!"

Just as Sara was about to ask how they can go when the Trailmon terminal under Shibuya Station was gone, the door of the computer room slammed open which made the DigiDestineds and Yolei jump by surprise. Sara turned around to see Tommy with a younger boy Yolei and TK knew to be Cody. They were whirling around to quickly shut the door, then turned their backs to it and slumped their shoulders as they panted heavily as if they had ran a mile.

When Kari looked like she was about to speak, the two arrivals immediately shushed her.

"Sh! You don't want them finding us, do you?" Cody said, albeit slightly calmly.

"Us? Don't ya mean me," Tommy muttered irritably, yet he was pale and glanced behind him at the door fearfully.

Sara frowned. Ever since their adventures in the Digital World, she and Tommy rarely got scared. So what could be the problem?

"What are you talking about?" Yolei asked rather loudly, only to get Tommy hiss at him.

"It's a longish story, and I really don't want to explain now."

"Will you two shut up! They're coming closer!" Cody said. He had his head close to the door to hear from outside the door. This immediately had everybody silenced.

_Just what is going on? What got those two so scared?_ These questions kept echoing in the others' heads upon their confusion.

The answer to the questions was soon answered upon the rabid footsteps being heard from outside the room. They immediately noted the stiffen forms in Tommy's and Cody's nervous body language.

"Come on! He's got to be this way!" A chorus of girls shouted at one another of getting to "him" first and that "he" was hers. Once the sounds of the girls and their footsteps were gone, Cody immediately slightly opened the door and peaked out the classroom.

"They're gone," Cody sighed in relief after shutting the door and slumping down. Tommy immediately slumped down with Cody and let out a relieved sigh. Sara, TK, Kari, Yolei and Izzy looked at the frightened duo with confused and amused expressions.

"What was… that all about?" TK asked, looking extremely amused.

When this was asked, the two of them looked at one another until Cody pointed at a blushing Tommy with a dead-panned expression.

"Those were–" Tommy shivered. "–fan girls,"

"Who were basically after Tommy," Cody finished.

Sara, TK and Yolei chuckled at this, while Izzy was doing something on the computer and Kari helped the two boys up. Tommy looked at Sara meaningfully, but she shrugged as a sign of not having learnt how TK and Kari knew about the Digital World.

"Back to what we were talking about, I wanna go to the Digital World," Yolei said.

"That's impossible," TK said as he, Kari and Izzy looked at each other. "Not just anyone can go you know. You need a digivice." TK and Kari held out their own digivices, which were identical.

Sara raised an eyebrow, and lightly punched her cousin when he snickered. While Tommy had picked up a lot of little habits from Takuya, Sara had picked up habits from Koji Minamoto, another one of the Warriors. This often led to Takuya joking that Koji was corrupting the formerly shy girl, which was the cause of many arguments, both mock and real, over the first two summers the group spent together.

_Those aren't like the ones me and the others have,_ Sara thought, slowly pulling out her turquoise D-tector that had an aquamarine grip. Tommy pulled out his too. The devices were noticed by Cody, but he didn't say anything since he assumed they were some kind of new Gameboys.

Yolei yelped loudly just as two coloured streams of light shot out of the computer screen that Izzy had been working at. The red light went straight to Yolei, the yellow one went to Cody. Yolei's turned out to be a device the size of a cell phone, oval in shape and coloured wood brown with a red grip. The screen was inside a spike cornered hexagon. Below the screen was a round toggle that had two buttons in the center. The top of the oval shaped device was flatter, and instead of an antenna it had a small red square in the right "corner" of the device, meaning that it had scanning abilities. Cody's was identical to Yolei's except dark chocolate with a yellow grip. To Tommy and Sara, they seemed like smaller versions of D-tectors.

"Wow, what is this?" Yolei asked, showing hers to Izzy who looked amazed.

"New digivices," Izzy stated, staring at them in surprise.

"I'm not waiting any longer!" Kari said, turning to the computer and raising her little pale blue digivice to the screen. Tommy, Sara, Yolei and Cody gasped when she suddenly disappeared into the computer monitor.

_New way of getting there huh? Well I like the Trailmon a lot better,_ Tommy thought as TK walked up to the screen.

"I'm with you," TK declared as he too disappeared into the screen.

"What the heck, might as well go too," Sara muttered, thrusting her D-tector towards the screen. Catching a glimpse of it, Izzy gasped. But Sara went by so fast he didn't have time to register what he had seen.

"It's your turn, unless you're scared," Izzy said, turning to Yolei, who frowned.

"I'm there," she stated determinedly and disappeared as well.

"Yolei!" Cody gasped, rushing over to the screen.

"Lets go together, Cody," Tommy said as he stood next to the younger boy, who looked up at him and nodded.

"Yeah," Cody said quietly.

"See ya in a moment, Izzy" Tommy said with a grin, raising his D-tector and taking hold of Cody's hand.

"Right, my turn," Izzy said and raised his digivice to follow the others.

* * *

It was a weird sensation. At first it felt like all the air had been knocked out of her lungs as a shock ran through her body. It wasn't unpleasant, but it wasn't exactly a comfortable sensation either. Then the air suddenly returned to her lungs. After another shock ran through her body, Sara could suddenly feel firm ground beneath her feet and realized that TK and Kari were standing nearby.

Sara frowned. "It's changed," she muttered.

"What?" TK asked, turning around. When he saw her, he exclaimed in surprise: "How did you get here?"

"None of your business," Sara said rudely with a scowl as she marched forward. Then she leaned against a tree with her arms crossed and turned her head to see if her cousin and the other two boys had come through.

Suddenly, a loud scream came from nearby. Spinning around they saw Yolei on the ground with green Digimon milling about around her.

"Numemon," Tommy muttered. Izzy looked at him from the corner of his eye and frowned.

"Are all Digimon like that?" Yolei asked as she ran up to the group after she "escaped" the Numemon.

"Are they?" Cody asked nervously, looking over his shoulder.

"There are tons of others, a lot cuter than those," Kari said comfortingly. Sara rolled her eyes.

"And a lot scarier ones too," TK added with a smirk.

"Oh, just great," Yolei muttered.

"Kari!" someone suddenly called out.

They quickly turned towards the voice as a 15-year-old boy with every-which-way flame-like chocolate hair came running over to the group dressed in the same uniform as Izzy. He was wearing a pair of white-rimmed round goggles over a blue headband on his head.

"Tai!" Kari gasped, and ran to hug her older brother.

"What are these guys doing here, Kari?" Taichi Kamiya, or "Tai" for short, asked turning to look at them. Right behind him was a small yellow T-Rex-like creature known as an Agumon.

Just then a voice called out: "KARI!"

It was followed by someone calling: "TK!" Both of the kids turned and smiled as two Digimon came running up to them.

"Patamon!" TK grinned as he hugged the Digimon. "Boy, am I glad to see you!"

"Patamon?" Tommy said under his breath as he titled his head, and Izzy heard him. _That's not the Patamon I know. Aw man, I kinda hoped it would be him._

"Gatomon!" Kari exclaimed, hugging the white cat Digimon. She then noticed something was missing from her Digimon friend and gasped. "Your tail ring! Tell me what happened."

At a cave nearby, Gatomon gave the explanation: "One day this bossy human appeared and began making Digimon into his slaves. He said 'I am the Digimon Emperor!' I lost my tail ring fighting his minions off. He's got this strange new digivice that makes us unable to digivolve."

"Show her yours," TK said, turning to Yolei, who nodded and took it out of her pocket.

"Like this one?" she asked.

"That's it! You work for the Digimon Emperor!" Gatomon cried out

Sara rolled her eyes as Yolei glared at the Champion. "What? I don't work for anybody!" Yolei yelled indignantly, "Besides, mine's not dark! I just got this thing when it came out of the computer!"

"So that's what we released," Agumon commented.

"What do you mean, Agumon?" TK asked, turning to the Rookie.

"We found that egg with some sort of new mark on it, and I tried to but couldn't pick it up," Tai explained, frowning and pointing at a small object at the back of the cave. Everyone walked to it and Tommy thought it was a little like his Human Spirit, except it had a lion's mane on its head and claws crossed across its front as well as was more an egg-like shape than the Spirit. The egg had a light blue mark on its head – which Tommy and Sara recognized as the mark for the Element of Ice.

"Two lights came out of it when I tried," Tai went on, oblivious to Tommy and Sara staring at the egg. "It weighs a ton," he muttered, crossing his arms.

"Let me try," TK said, walking over the egg and tried to lift it. It wouldn't budge.

"Move aside, this is a woman's job," Kari said as TK moved back to stand next to Tai. Kari tried to pull it out but sadly failed.

"Too bad we don't have a woman here to help," TK joked.

Then, resenting TK's comment, Yolei tried, but she too failed. Then Cody tired, and then Izzy, both with the same result. Sara frowned and refused to try, guessing the reason why no-one had been able to do it so far.

Being last, Tommy walked over to the egg and reached down to pick it up. Something in his jeans' pocket started glowing with a light turquoise light.

"Ahh!" Tommy gasped as he fell backward with the egg in hand. He hadn't expected it to give way so easily. "That wasn't so hard. You guys need to work out more," he laughed.

"There's a problem," Tai yelped as light turquoise light started to stream from the hole.

"Great, now what?" Sara muttered as a bear cub Digimon came out from the light.

"Yahoo! Free at last! Free at last!" the Digimon cried, jumping in circles around Tommy. "You moved the Digimental of Ice! My name's Bearmon, nice to meet ya!"

"Uhh… I'm Tommy," the Warrior of Ice said, blinking before a wide grin spread across his features. He had become friends with a Bearmon during his adventures.

"No offence, but aren't Bearmon supposed to have blue baseball caps?" Sara asked, making the DigiDestineds wonder how she could know that. They had never seen a Bearmon before.

Bearmon put a paw on his furry head and shrugged. "Don' know. Never had one," he said just as rocks suddenly began to fall from the cave's ceiling.

"Come on, guys, that's our cue to get out of here!" Tai yelled.

"Right!" everyone said and followed the oldest boy out.

Everyone gasped at the large triceratops Digimon that came tearing after them, Tai and his group recognising it from their adventures. Tommy and Bearmon stumbled down as they got to the cave's mouth. "Monochromon?" Tommy whispered to himself when he heard TK identify the dino, glancing at the Champion Digimon trashing around behind him.

"Tommy, get down from there!" Sara's voice called out. Tommy turned back around and saw that everyone else were already away from the rampaging Digimon. He grabbed his D-tector – which, to his surprise, had turned into the new model as it was what had glowed the second he was about to touch the Digimental.

But the Spirits of Ice wouldn't answer him!

"Come on! Execute!" Tommy cried as he shook his D-tector, but it was no use.

"Volcanic Strike!" Monochromon suddenly yelled, firing a large fireball from his mouth at them. When it hit the rocks it exploded, sending Tommy and Bearmon tumbling over the edge.

"Tommy! Tell me what hurts," Bearmon said after they hit the ground with a heavy thump.

"Everything," Tommy groaned, pushing himself up.

"Kari, you can't stay here!" Gatomon's voice suddenly cried out.

Tommy turned to look at the brunette girl some way ahead and saw her on her knees. "I-I can't move my ankle," she cried, trying to stand up on her poor leg but ended up falling back down.

"Tommy, open the Digimental!" Bearmon said frantically, "If you do, I can digivolve! All you have to say to open it is 'Digi-armour-energize!'"

Tommy stood up, refusing to feel scared and feeling the same determination that had allowed him to become the Warrior of Ice in the first place. "Right! Digi-armour-energize!" Tommy yelled, holding up the Digimental. Bearmon suddenly glowed.

"Bearmon armour digivolve to… IceLeomon, Icy Warrior of Justice!"

"Armour digivolve?" Tai gasped while Tommy's eyes widened.

Standing in Bearmon's place was now a large white lion-man hybrid wearing black trousers and carrying a sword. To Tai's group, he looked almost identical to their old friend Leomon. Sara remembered having caught a glimpse of Takuya fighting an IceLeomon during their last trip to the Digital World.

IceLeomon jumped in front of Kari and Gatomon to defend them from another of Monochromon's attacks. Tommy shook his head and quickly ran to his new classmate's side.

"Give me your hand," he told to her. Kari smiled gratefully and nodded. Tommy helped her up and Kari put her arm around his shoulders.

"Fist of Ice!" IceLeomon yelled as he jumped into the air and surrounded his fist with a lion's-head-resembling icy aura, before launching himself at Monochromon and hitting the dark ring around the triceratops' middle. It shattered.

"ARRR!" Monochromon let out a loud roar before turning and running away.

"Hey! What about a thank you?" Yolei yelled at the retreating Digimon. IceLeomon chuckled and glowed turning back into Bearmon as a beam of light turquoise light shot from him to Tommy's digivice.

A light turquoise beam also went from the screen of Tommy's digivice into his jeans' pocket. He put his hand into the pocket and pulled out something that looked like a PDA.

"That's a D-terminal. My friends and I have those too. A friend of ours gave them to us as parting gifts when we last were in the Digital World," Kari told.

"We did it, Tommy!" Bearmon cheered, running around the group.

"That was really brave, Tommy," Kari smiled as he helped her limp over to her older brother with Gatomon next to them.

"Thanks," he said with a grin. _Wait 'til the others hear about this!_

_This kid knows how to act in times of danger, and he's really brave too. I'm sure of it, considering my Crest reacted to him the moment he stood up to Monochromon. _Tai pulled his goggles off his headband, saying: "Well, as the new leader of the DigiDestined, you're going to need a cool pair of goggles." He took Tommy's hand and placed the white-rimmed round goggles on the preteen's palm. "As we all know, the leader just wouldn't look right without them, so I want you to have mine."

Tommy looked at the goggles, feeling a little unsure. He then grinned happily, chirping: "Thanks!" Tommy took his pumpkin cap off and put the goggles on.

"They look cute. Actually, so do you," Yolei said, then blushed when she realized what she had just said. Everyone laughed.

Tommy gave his old cap to Bearmon. Strangely, the cap at once shrunk to a pale orange baseball cap.

"Huh. Can I keep it, Tommy?" Bearmon asked, looking up at the cap that was backwards on his head.

Tommy nodded to his new partner, saying: "Sure. Now what do you all say we go home now?"

Gatomon reassured them that the Digimon Emperor never showed up at night, so everyone nodded in agreement to Tommy's suggestion.

* * *

To be continued…

* * *

I'm putting the disclaimer here and it applies to ever episode: I DON'T OWN DIGIMON! If you think I do, then I'd make the shows to have a lot more even amount of boy and girl DigiDestined. And I would give everyone equal strength rather than just the leader and lonewolf having great power (which is one of the best things about Data Squad).

Other than that, enjoy this fic. By the way, the DigiDestineds' clothes don't change when they go to the Digital World, since I never really understood that anyway. And Sara's voice is basically Rika's from Tamers.

Here's an important note about Adventure's ending to explain why they would go to Odaiba Elementary's computer room (which is where Tai had gone to the Digital World from in Ep.1. of my AU): When the 01 kids returned home on the carriage, there was a flash of light and they find themselves going through the computer's screen at Odaiba Elementary (Tai, Sora, Mimi and Kari's school at the time) and land into a dog pile. Plus, Mimi still has her cowgirl hat.

I hope this'll be a great fic!


	2. Episode 2

**Ep. 2. Gatherings and new crests**

* * *

Tommy: Life at Odaiba got off to an exciting start. After escaping fan girls, I ended up at the Digital World after not seeing it for four years. I wasn't alone either. Turns out, TK and a bunch of other people know about Digimon! Me and my cousin went there through a computer – weird, right? – with them to help my new classmate Kari's brother, and these kids Yolei and Cody got new digivices. Mine changed into one of those when I lifted the Digimental of Ice and met my partner Bearmon, and I was able to make him armour digivolve to IceLeomon. I've the feeling this is just the beginning.

* * *

Everyone ended up in a dog pile as they came out of the computer. "I definitely liked the Trailmon better," Tommy mumbled from the bottom of the pile. The others heard him but didn't comment. Everyone stood up and got off one another, Sara muttering threats if people didn't get off her immediately.

"Bye, everyone!" the Digimon chorused from the computer as the humans walked out of the elementary school and saw it was already around 7 o'clock judging by the sunset. They said goodbye to each other and went their separate ways.

* * *

As they walked home, Tommy and Sara talked about what had happened. "I still can't believe there are others who know about the Digital World," Tommy said, grinning. He had taken off his new goggles and was staring at them.

Sara rolled her eyes, knowing this happy-go-lucky attitude was partly Takuya's influence. "We better call the others. It's too late to have an actual meeting at our usual spot, so lets talk with them over the phone instead," Sara said.

Placing the goggles back on his head, Tommy nodded in agreement.

* * *

At a kids' park nearby, the eight DigiDestined had gathered to talk as well. TK's brother Yamato Ishida, commonly known as Matt, was the last to arrive.

"Sorry I'm late, guys," the Child of Friendship said as he approached the other teens and the two preteens.

Sora Takenouchi jumped down from the steel bars she had been sitting on. "It's good to be all together again," she said with a smile.

* * *

At Cody's, Yolei was fixing her friend's computer while he practiced kendo a little at his room's small balcony. "I can't wait to go there again. Tomorrow, we'll go to the Digital World!" Yolei declared, holding up a screwdriver.

* * *

"Digi-armour-energize?" Takuya's voice asked. The Himi cousins were on Sara's bedroom's floor, both their cell phones (with speaker on) and D-tectors on the floor so that the other five Warriors could talk to everyone through them. Fortunately, Tommy's new D-tector model still had the calling function.

"It's a phrase used to activate the new form of digivolving," Tommy told. "For some reason, my D-tector changed into the new one when I touched the Digimental of Ice, and now I just gotta say those words to make my new partner armour digivolve."

"What about spirit evolving?" Koji's older twin brother Koichi Kimura asked. His sister was staying over at his house, so they both talked through over Tommy's new D-tector.

"We tried it. The Spirits wouldn't answer us," Sara said offhandedly, but from her eyes it was clear that she was disappointed.

"If a new form of digivolving is needed, then the Digital World must be in big trouble," Koji stated. Koichi nodded in agreement, although only Koji could see him.

"Right. This Digimon Emperor must be stopped," JP said.

* * *

"For some reason, Agumon and the others couldn't digivolve, but Tommy's partner had no problem," Tai said, resting his chin on his hands with his elbows propped against his knees as he sat on the back of a bench. _I just don't understand why my Crest didn't work_, he thought as he pulled out a small pendant (his tag) from under his blazer. It was angular and sort of water drop shaped, and held an orange plate with a sun symbol – his Crest of Courage.

"I'm worried. If this Digimon Emperor is enslaving Digimon, will Biyomon and the others be okay?" Sora said.

"I got an e-mail earlier from Mimi. She was worrying about the exact same thing," Kari told.

"I say we go there and do things our way," Matt said.

"We can't. I checked the Digiport before leaving, and it's closed again," Izzy told. He then changed the subject: "I've been thinking… Tommy and Sara had digivices that were nothing like ours and they knew about the Digital World and Digimon. My conclusion is that they must have gone to the Digital World before."

"Right. I wonder how those two got their digivices?" Tai said.

* * *

"Right. I wonder how those guys got their D-tectors?" Takuya's voice said over Tommy's phone.

"They don't call them D-tectors, doofus," Sara said, "They call them digivices."

"Okay, digivices."

"Maybe they're those kids from three years ago, the ones who had Digimon partners and fought evil Digimon here in the Real World," Zoe's voice came from Sara's D-tector. "So Tommy, did that Tai guy really pick you as leader?"

"You betcha!" Tommy replied, clasping his hands behind his head, another habit he had picked up from Takuya.

"Yeah. Now I gotta put up _living_ with a goggle-head," Sara said with a smirk, making Takuya and Tommy exclaim "Hey!" while the others burst out laughing.

"Sara and Tommy! Dinner's ready!" Mrs Himi's voice called from the kitchen/dining room.

"We gotta go. Talk to you guys tomorrow, okay?" Tommy said. _This is so cool! We're gonna have new adventures in the Digital World!_

* * *

The next morning, TK and Kari took their seats in class, glancing at the door every two seconds. Tommy and Sara hadn't showed up yet, and the bell will ring any minute.

The Himi cousins came in just as the bell rang. Tommy looked just the same as yesterday – he wore a lime green short-sleeved hooded top over a white shirt, and blue jeans. The only difference was that he had no hat and instead Tai's goggles were still on his head.

* * *

At lunch, Tommy, Sara, TK and Kari were walking towards the computer lab in awkward silence. Tommy racked his brains for something so say, scratching the back of his head.

Kari giggled quietly. "What?" Tommy asked, clueless.

"Nothing. You just sorta remind me of Tai," Kari replied, smiling in a friendly manner.

"Oh right! He's your brother. I gotta thank him for these awesome goggles. A close friend of mine used to wear goggles too."

"Really?" TK asked.

Tommy nodded. "Yup. He says goggles are the mark of a leader. Kinda like Tai, huh?"

"Sure sounds like him," TK said with a cheerful smile, and Kari nodded in agreement. Sara just ignored the other three preteens.

They arrived at the computer lab and saw Yolei and Cody already there. Apparently, they had wanted to go to the Digital World for a bit too. "Hi," Yolei greeted them with a grin, while Cody gave a polite bow. It quite surprised the four at how good manners the smaller boy always seemed to use.

Tommy, Yolei and Cody held out their digivices for Sora to see after she, Tai and Izzy arrived. Izzy checked the Digiport and saw it was open.

He went to every other computer, then back to the one with the Digiport, saying: "I checked the other computers. It seems to me that the Digiport is only open on this one right here."

Just as the youngsters were about to leave for the Digital World, something (or more specifically, _someone_) put a halt to their plans. "Tai Kamiya, is that you?" asked a voice the older kids hadn't heard in a long time.

"Mr. Fujiama," said Tai, bewildered by his presence, "How have you been?"

"I've been fine," replied Mr. Fujiama, "Sora and Izzy too, I thought you guys graduated already."

"We did," Sora replied, "But what are you doing here?"

"I'm the new head of the computer club."

"What do you know about using computers?" asked Tai and Sora at the same time.

"Not a single-solitary thing."

Everyone sighed, the older kids had not been surprised.

_That figures,_ thought Tai, and he immediately started talking fast and pushing the teacher out of the room, seemingly wanting to talk alone about girls.

"Thanks, Tai," said Sora, after Tai flashed them the peace symbol, "We owe you one."

"Now that that's out of the way," said TK, "Let's head to the Digital World."

"All together now!" said Tommy, as everyone brought up his or her digivice.

One bright flash of the computer screen later, and everyone disappeared, having travelled to the Digital World.

* * *

This time, they all ended up at an area mostly consisting of red rock, though there were a few grassy hills nearby and a forest further away. The area was a few hours' trek away from where they had gone to yesterday.

"Bearmon! Where are you?" Tommy called, hoping his new partner was somewhere in the area. He wanted to get to know the little guy better, especially since he reminded Tommy of Kumamon. Not to mention how he had befriended a Bearmon on the Island Of Lost Digimon.

After calling for Bearmon only a few times, Tommy smiled as he saw the Rookie running towards him in the distance, accompanied by Patamon, Agumon, Gatomon, Biyomon and Tentomon.

"Hiya, Tommy!" Bearmon said cheerfully as soon as he reached his partner.

Biyomon and Tentomon were having happy reunions with their human partners, Sora and Izzy. Agumon asked where Tai was, and Kari told him that the Child of Courage was keeping a teacher busy so that the other DigiDestined could be in the Digital World without fear of being discovered by the teacher.

Suddenly, a large shadow swept over everyone and a large green bug Digimon came flying down and was about to hit Sora. The youngsters didn't notice it, but it was wearing a dark ring round its middle.

"Sora, move!" TK yelled, running over to her pushing her down. The Champion Digimon just missed them by an inch.

The Rookie Digimon used their attacks to try and fight him off, but failed as the bug was a skilled flyer and stronger than them. The only one who was strong enough to fight it was Gatomon, and even she couldn't win. "It's just no use. I'm not that strong without my tail ring," the feline said sadly.

"Don't worry guys, Tommy, use the Digimental of Ice," Bearmon said turning to the goggle-head.

"Right," Tommy said, taking out his digivice from his jeans' pocket. Suddenly, a large hole opened up from underneath him, sending him falling into it.

"TOMMY!" Bearmon cried out as a drill-nosed Digimon started to make its way up the hole towards Tommy, who had grabbed onto a rock to stop him from falling all the way down.

"It's a Drimogemon!" Agumon exclaimed as the Digimon started to move closer to Tommy.

"A dark ring," the goggle-head muttered to himself when he saw the ring around its front leg.

There was a loud roar and the ground started to shake. Looking over their shoulder, Yolei and the others saw a large white snow beast Digimon with a dark ring around his wrist.

"What is that?" Yolei asked as Cody gripped TK's (who was the closest) shorts in fear. They had experienced some danger yesterday already, but having three monsters attacking and one of their new friends falling into a giant hole on the ground was starting to get too much for the two new DigiDestined.

"That would be Mojyamon" Izzy said with a matter-of-fact tone.

"Bone boomerang!" Mojyamon yelled, throwing his bone boomerang.

"Bearmon, look out!" Kari screamed as the boomerang went straight at the Rookie who was looking over the hole at Tommy.

Bearmon turned only to get hit in the face by the Digimon's attack, sending him over the edge. "Bearmon!" Tommy yelled, and in that moment, like he'd learned from his role model, he forgot about his own safety and let go of the rock, turned and dived to catch Bearmon, but sadly they fell into Drimogemon's grasp. When they hit the ground they both were knocked out cold.

"Oh my... the ground opened up and ate them," Yolei gasped.

"Tommy!" Sara cried out, her face showing her worry for her cousin. Normally she wouldn't worry about him since they both had learnt to protect themselves, but with the Spirits refusing to answer them and this new enemy the Digimon Emperor, it was safe to say that too much confidence would be foolish. Especially since the others had told Sara of what happened with Duskmon.

"I want to go home now," Cody said, gripping TK's shorts tighter.

"But first we have to get out of here!" TK decided, placing a comforting hand on the younger boy's shoulder. He knew what it was like being the youngest and vulnerable.

Izzy nodded, agreeing with him. He and TK took Cody by each hand with their partners and Agumon close behind. Sora helped Yolei up and, with Biyomon by her side, started leading the younger girl away with the boys following. Kari and Gatomon went to Yolei's side, the preteen taking her new friend's hand and giving it a comforting squeeze. Her group truly was worried about Tommy, but they knew from experience that getting to safety must be their first task.

Cody looked over his shoulder and started to shake, as Mojyamon started to walk their way.

"I can't take this... I wanna go home wha-hahahaha!" cried Yolei as the two Digimon trapped them from both front and back. Having had enough of the other girl, Sara slapped her on the cheek.

"Pull yourself together! You're a DigiDestined now and that means staying calm and brave in the face of danger! Otherwise you'll just hurt yourself and others!" At the end of Sara's short rant, TK nodded with approval and said she was right. Yolei just looked at the other girl blankly, too surprised of the sudden slap to feel angry about it. (Yet!)

The auburn-haired girl's words gave Gatomon an idea. "Kari! Use your Crest to give me at least a little more strength!" she said urgently. Kari didn't understand how that can be done, but decided to trust Gatomon. Since she knew one time she had managed to give Angewomon, Gatomon's Ultimate form, an arrow by using her Crest of Light (TK had done the same for Angemon a.k.a. Patamon with his Crest of Hope), so she recalled the memory of that time.

Her pink Crest glowed beneath her tank top, and Gatomon felt some of her old strength back. She raced towards Mojyamon, jumped, and delivered a Lightning Paw square on the other Champion's face. Mojyamon reeled back from the impact, and Gatomon used the opportunity to grab its bone boomerang and throw it at the bug Digimon known as Snimon. It hit the target, making the Champion fall to the ground temporarily.

"Now that they're distracted, lets get a move on!" Sara declared, running to the forest that was fairly near to them by now. The others were right behind her.

* * *

The DigiDestined and Digimon walked past tropical trees and bushes, hoping to find some sign of where Tommy and Bearmon were.

Suddenly, Cody's digivice started beeping. He took it out of his pocket and saw it had detected something far ahead, as shown by the little black dot on the screen. "Hey, umm… guys?" Cody called. Everyone's attention went to him, making him blush a little in embarrassment.

"Uh… my digivice is going off," he said showing the device to them.

"You're right. Mine's going off too," TK said as everyone looked at their own.

"I wonder if there's a building close by. Maybe Tommy is in there," Izzy commented.

"There's no building around here," Biyomon said, looking at Tentomon.

"But there is the temple," the bug Digimon replied.

"A temple? Well whatever is in there that is making are digivices go off like that is worth checking out. Who knows, maybe Tommy and Bearmon are in there too," Sora said as everyone turned to look at the large white temple that could by now be seen through the trees.

Once they got to the top and after Yolei had finished whining, they found two objects situated on pedestals. They were similar to eggs, but the one on the right was silver with wings and had a strange symbol – a red heart-like shape with a lime green water drop on top. The one on the left was a little bottle-like with purple and white colouring and a strange symbol of its own – two purple rings with one inside the other, and a grey cross inside the inner ring.

"They look like Digieggs," Sora said, looking up at the two objects.

"Digimentals," Agumon corrected her, remembering Bearmon's words from yesterday.

"That must be what our digivices where reacting to," Cody said, looking at his digivice then back at the eggs. TK murmured in agreement.

"That symbol looks like a mixture of the Crests of Knowledge and Reliability," Izzy remarked, observing the purple and white egg. Having the Crest of Knowledge, he was the Child of Knowledge. Joe Kido was the Child of Reliability, while Mimi Tachikawa was the Child of Sincerity.

"And that one is clearly a combination of the Crests of Love and Sincerity," Sora said, pointing at the egg with wings. She pulled out from her green sailor uniform skirt's pocket her tag, which held her Crest of Love.

"What Crests are they?" Kari wondered aloud.

From Yolei's digivice suddenly came a feminine voice: "Yolei Inoue. You are the Child of Compassion."

"What?" Yolei exclaimed, staring at her digivice. The screen showed a strange symbol, which Sara recognized as Lady Ophanimon's symbol.

_Now that I think about it, that voice is Lady Ophanimon's, _she thought, frowning. _Had the Celestial Digimon chosen new DigiDestineds again? But why just two? Do they expect the other two groups to help Yolei and Cody? Or are there even more new DigiDestined out there?_

"Iori Hida," Ophanimon's voice said from Cody's digivice. "You are the Child of Integrity."

"Huh?" Cody looked at his digivice in surprise, seeing Ophanimon's symbol on the screen.

Then both digivices' screens became blank again, until Yolei pressed one of the buttons, causing a digital clock showing the time and date appear. It was 11:39.

"U-oh! We gotta get back in twenty minutes or we're gonna be late from class. Oh well, I'll just say I was in the Digital World," Yolei said.

"You can't! It's a secret, so you must promise to never tell anyone about it. Only us DigiDestineds can know, no-one else," TK said.

"Not even our families?" Cody asked, frowning. He wasn't sure if he even could keep a secret this big from his mother and grandfather.

"Nope. Sorry," Kari said with an apologetic smile.

Yolei sighed, not looking forward to getting in trouble. "All right, I promise. But who was that woman talking to me?"

"Lady Ophanimon," Sara replied, crossing her arms. But she was smiling, a memory of how she and Tommy had played with the Celestial Digimon when the three were in their Rookie forms flashing by in her mind.

"Who is she?" Kari and Yolei asked at the same time.

"You don't need to know that now," Sara said offhandedly.

This really ticked Yolei off. "Hey, I asked you a question!"

"Yolei, I'm more curious about what Crests even are," Cody said, placing a calming hand on his friend's arm.

"They're these things," TK replied as he pulled his tag from under his sweater. It held his Crest of Hope. Kari pulled hers out too.

"You see, our Crests allow our Digimon partners to digivolve to ultimate level. They're based on our strongest virtue," Izzy told, taking out his Crest from his grey trousers' pocket.

"I see…" Cody muttered.

"Yolei, Cody? I think you should try lifting them," Sora said, remembering what Tai had said last night.

_Flashback_

_"Even Yolei and Cody couldn't lift the egg but Tommy had no problem."_

_End flashback_

_They might not have been able to lift the Digimental Tommy lifted, but maybe that's because these eggs are meant for them and can only be lifted by their owner,_ Izzy theorized in his mind.

"Huh? You want us to try it?" Yolei asked. Sora and Izzy nodded.

"Uuh, okay," Cody said with an unsure nod as he and the older girl went to stand in front of the pedestal.

Yolei took hold of the Digimental of Compassion and Cody put his hands around the Digimental of Integrity. They pulled, and the eggs came off at once. Streams of red and purple light came from the eggs' previous spots, and two creatures formed in them. From the red light a red and white hawk-like Digimon jumped out, while a yellow armadillo-resembling Digimon came from the purple light. The lights faded as the two Rookies smiled up at their new partners.

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance," Hawkmon greeted, his voice holding a British accent.

"I was having a nice nap. Did ya have to wake me up?" Armadillomon asked, yawning. But he didn't really seem annoyed.

"Wow, two more new Digimon!" Agumon said with a toothy smile. He came up to Hawkmon and Armadillomon, holding out his hand. "Hi, I'm Agumon. These guys are my friends, and those two humans released you from what I think was a deep sleep."

"Well, I did assume that they are mine and Armadillomon's new partners. My name is Hawkmon, and it is a pleasure to meet you, Agumon," the bird-like Rookie replied, shaking Agumon's hand with his right wing. Agumon grinned, feeling that he and Hawkmon were going to get along well.

"This is nice and all, but shouldn't we be worrying about finding Tommy and Bearmon?" Sara said.

"Right. Yolei, Cody, you might want to prepare yourselves to help your partners fight," TK said with a nod.

"Fight?! But I don't want to fight! I don't like this place and I want to go home!" Yolei wailed, dropping her new Digimental and running off.

"Yolei!" Sora called, picking up the Digimental (which for some reason didn't feel at all heavy anymore) and raced after the younger girl with Hawkmon following her. She caught up to the 12-year-old, finding her sitting on the temple's steps. The orange-haired teen sat next to Yolei, putting the Digimental to its owner's hands and holding them in her own. Yolei looked at Sora in confusion. "Look, I know this all sounds scary, but it's going to be okay," Sora said in a motherly tone.

Yolei looked sceptical. "How do you know?"

"Because one of my best friends is a girl who is a lot like you. When she was 10, she didn't want to fight either even though she knew she had to. But she decided to try for the sake of her friends because she cared about us. Wouldn't you like to be there to protect Cody in the face of danger?"

Yolei nodded, starting to feel determined. "Yes. We've been friends ever since he was little, so I'm definitely going to be around if Cody will be in danger." Standing up along with Sora, their hands still around the Digimental, Yolei declared: "I will do whatever it takes to protect the ones I love!" At once, the Digimental of Compassion as well as Sora's Crest (though the Crest so faintly that only Sora noticed) started to glow red. The girls' and Hawkmon's attention then turned to the top of the temple when they heard a crash.

Meanwhile, after Yolei and Sora had run off, Izzy asked Cody: "So, Cody, what do you think of the Digital World so far?"

"It's so new and interesting, but scary too. Though I haven't been here enough to form a more accurate opinion yet," the 9-year-old replied, and Sara couldn't help wondering why he spoke as if he was at least four years older. "But I'm not sure what would be the best thing to do to satisfy my curiosity."

"Then do what I did as a kid. Stick around and observe the Digital World while fighting to protect it," the red-haired teen replied, finishing with a smile: "If there's a problem you can't solve, then come to me and we can solve it together."

He was about to say more, but there was an earthquake caused by two DarkTyrannomon fighting near the temple and one of them hitting it very hard as a result. This caused some of the rocks of the roof to fall, causing a cave-in.

"Great, now we're stuck here," Sara grumbled as the dust lifted. Gatomon mumbled something similar as she walked over to Kari with Agumon to check that the girl was all right.

"What do we do?" Kari asked Izzy. However, the older boy was looking at Cody and his Digimental with interest, as the child went to the blocked off entrance with TK, Sara, Patamon and Armadillomon.

_If we move those two rocks, the roof will fall. So we need to move every rock around them first, since they're smaller… _the brunette thought, and gasped when his Digimental started to glow purple. Izzy gasped too, as his Crest reacted to Cody.

Instinctively, Yolei and Cody said as their Digimentals glowed: "Digi-armour-energize!"

* * *

When Tommy woke up, he was on the side of a sheer cliff face and he sweatdropped, then heard another boy's voice: "Ah, I see you've awakened at last. Not such a big hotshot now, are you?" Tommy looked up to see the source, and saw a boy his age wearing a blue spandex suit and a dark blue upside-down-V-like cape. The other boy's eyes and part of his face were covered by big, goggles-like purple sunglasses with yellow rims. His navy blue and blue-gray hair stuck to every direction in spikes.

"Do you have any idea of who you're dealing with?" asked Tommy, his intimidation severely weakened by the fact that even if he did break free he would be hard-pressed to get up the cliff to face the Digimon Emperor.

"Tomoki Himi," said the Digimon Emperor, "new leader of the DigiDestined and the Warrior of Ice."

"How'd you know that?" asked Tommy, shocked. _How can he know I'm a Warrior? Does he know about the others too? Wait a minute! Is it just me, or does that guy's voice seem vaguely familiar?_

"I don't reveal my sources," said the Digimon Emperor, "But don't feel too bad, I didn't leave you out here alone."

And with a snap of his fingers, part of the opposite cliff face opened up and revealed Bearmon. "Hiya, Tommy!" greeted Bearmon, seemingly not very afraid or just too naïve to realise the situation. "Nice view, isn't it?"

"Let Bearmon go!" Tommy shouted at the Digimon Emperor. "If you wanna fight someone, fight me! But let my friend go!"

"I don't think so. You have been trespassing on my land, and I do not let that go without punishment," the Digimon Emperor said smugly, clicking his fingers.

A dark ring appeared and headed towards Bearmon. "No, Bearmon!" Tommy cried out. "Come on, execute! Aargh! What good is being a Warrior if I can't save my Digimon partner?" _Great, I'm gonna lose my friend after knowing him for only a day. Wait a second! That's it!_ "Bearmon, quick armour digivolve!"

"Excuse me, but don't you need these to carry out that little trick?" the Emperor said smugly, holding out Tommy's new D-terminal and newly-modelled D-tector.

"Hey, those are mine!" the goggle-head exclaimed.

"Thank you for stating the obvious," the Emperor replied sarcastically.

The dark ring was almost upon Bearmon when–

"Eagle Eye!" shouted Halsemon, destroying it by lasers coming from his eyes as he flew in with Yolei on his back and carrying Submarimon by his feet. He threw the latter towards Bearmon as the other Armour Digimon fired his Oxygen Torpedo attack to rescue the Rookie. Halsemon himself fired his attack again at Tommy's restraints, freeing the boy.

Tommy jumped on Halsemon's back as he flew by, thanking Yolei and the Armour Digimon.

"Sorry to crash the party," Submarimon joked as his attack crumbled the cliff face Bearmon was stuck to. He opened his glass-like top half, allowing the Rookie to get in, and closing it before they hit the ground. He was much more comfortable in water since he was a water type Digimon, but was still determined to help out against any lackeys the Digimon Emperor might send after them.

"Ya coulda knocked," Bearmon replied, smiling. His partner was taken safely to the ground by Halsemon.

Gatomon showed up in front of the Digimon Emperor, who was busy looking down below while grinding his teeth in anger. She punched him to the stomach before he could take out his whip, and grabbed the digivice and D-terminal, then jumped off the cliff. Patamon caught her and landed her in front of Tommy. The feline Champion then gave the goggle-head his digivice and D-terminal.

"Thanks, Gatomon. Bearmon, it's our turn now," Tommy said, holding up his digivice, "Digi-armour-energize!"

Bearmon armour digivolved into IceLeomon. "Let's show this Digimon Emperor what Armour Digimon are all about, guys," IceLeomon suggested with a cocky grin.

TK shook his head in amusement, thinking: _He looks a lot like Leomon but they are nothing alike._

"Right with you," said Submarimon.

"Won't argue with you there," added Halsemon.

Halsemon took to the air to face Snimon with Yolei still on his back, while Submarimon headed into a large hole that would take him underground to battle Drimogemon. This left IceLeomon to take care of Mojyamon.

"I only need one attack to free you," IceLeomon said in a matter-of-fact tone, hopping up on a small plateau in front of the DigiDestined. He was about to use his Crystal Breeze attack [I know that's Kumamon's, but he's linked to the Spirits of Ice, so…], when his opponent provided him with a better idea.

Mojyamon threw a giant icicle at IceLeomon, who caught the icicle and, without waiting, threw it fast right onto the dark ring in Mojyamon's left arm. It crumbled partially, falling off and disintegrating upon contact with the ground.

"This isn't over!" the Digimon Emperor shouted, jumping off the cliff just as one of his slaves, a Devidramon, flew by.

Back at the cliff everyone was in front of, the poor three Digimon that had been trapped as the Emperor's slaves were greeted by the children and now-dedigivolved Rookies.

"We're sorry we had to fight you, I hope we're still friends," Bearmon said in his childish voice as he grinned up at the Champions.

"It's okay. It was like working. All day long it was destroy this, destroy that… We need a vacation!" the Digimon laughed, walking away.

"So Yolei, will I be able to count on you from now on?" Hawkmon asked the lavender-haired girl.

"Yep!" She grinned, giving him a thumbs up.

"So Cody, we're a team now right?" Armadillomon asked with a grin.

"Of course," Cody answered as he smiled softly.

"Lets all come here again tomorrow. We could try freeing some of the slaves," TK suggested.

"Good idea. Our partners could keep watch on the different areas of the Digital World and alert us whenever there's trouble. I have a suspicion that the Digiport isn't going to lock up any time soon until the Digimon Emperor is defeated," Izzy said with a thoughtful look. There were murmurs of agreement from the others.

* * *

"The birds and the bees, huh? Thanks, teach," came the nervous voice of Tai from behind the computer room's door.

"Boy when it comes to girls, this guy has a lot to learn," Tai muttered, walking into the room with his hands in his light grey trousers' pockets.

"What happened to you guys?" Tai asked when the others screamed and landed in a dog pile on the computer room's floor.

"Please don't ask," was the response as everyone groaned.

"The Digimon returned to their In-Training forms," Tai gasped, surprised to see not only Gatomon and Patamon but three unfamiliar Digimon.

"Huh?" Tommy blinked and looked up to see a small but cute blue Digimon lying on his head. He resembled a cat's head in a way, and his name was Wanyamon.

"Wow! You're so cute!" Yolei said, hugging a light pink bird head with a feather sticking up at the back. He was Poromon.

"I don't understand how this little fellow can turn into such a big Digimon like Submarimon," Cody sighed from his position on the floor, looking at the pale yellow head with three-fingered ears in front of him. The little Upamon was looking up at his partner with a smile.

"Are we going to have to do this every time we come back?" Kari asked from her cramped spot on Tommy's back.

"I hope not. I do like you, Kari, but can you please get off me?" Tommy moaned.

"Huh? Oh sorry, Tommy!" yelped the brunette girl, jumping up.

"Yep, definitely a Zoe moment," Tommy mumbled. Sara heard him and chuckled. In response, he shot her a glare.

"And I thought digivolving was hard," Patamon joked, sitting on a computer desk.

"Well at least we can get home safely," TK sighed, leaning next to Patamon.

"Everyone but Biyomon, Agumon and Tentomon," Sora said with disappointment.

"TAI!" yelled a voice from the computer.

Everyone turned to the computer screen to see the three missing Rookies. Agumon was waving madly, happy to at least see his human partner through the gate. Tai grinned and waved back.

"Don't worry, we will be safe here, because the Digimon Emperor never comes out at night," Biyomon said as Agumon stopped waving his hands around.

"All that power and he's afraid of the dark," Tentomon laughed.

"Well get some rest. You'll need it for tomorrow," Sora giggled.

"We're going back tomorrow aren't we?" Tommy asked, excited. He couldn't wait to see the Digital World again. Ever since witnessing some other kids battling evil Digimon in their place, he and Takuya had hoped they would be needed again in the Digital World. After all, there was nothing the duo hated more than being useless.

* * *

Tommy was in his room explaining to the furball known as Wanyamon about his videogames, when his aunt's voice came: "Tommy, dear, you have a guest."

The goggle-head put his partner onto his pillow before walking to the front door where Mrs Himi stood. "Takuya?!" he exclaimed in surprise, which caused Sara to come out of her room. She too was a little surprised to see their team's leader at their door at this time of day. Her mother retreated to her and her husband's bedroom to allow the preteens and teen talk in private.

"Hi, you two," Takuya said with his usual laid-back grin. "I just decided to pop by to give this to you, Tommy." He took off his olive-green cap, which he had been wearing ever since he was a little boy, and put it in Tommy's hands. "Since you've got that Tai guy's goggles, I figured you would like my cap. I bet you'll become a great leader to your new team, buddy."

"Thanks, Takuya," Tommy said to his idol. He then felt a little sad as a thought crossed his mind. "Does this mean I'm no longer part of the old team?"

"Of course not!" Takuya said, swinging his arm around Tommy's shoulders. Glancing at Sara, he grinned and did the same to her despite the scowl he got in response from the younger girl. "We're the Legendary Warriors. No matter how old we get, we'll _always_ be a team, right?"

Smiling, the younger boy replied: "Right!"

* * *

To be continued…

* * *

If anyone's wondering why no-one's asked Tommy about how can the Emperor seem familiar to him and know he's a Warrior, it's coz he forgot about both of those things. And he'll keep on forgetting about them in the heat of their adventures, though he MIGHT mention it to someone eventually.

And if anyone's wondering how they got out of the temple, use your imagination to think how Submarimon coulda done it.

In this fic, Koji's voice is kinda like Selena Gomez' in my head. I genderbent Koji coz, for some **insane** reason, I think the only thing that coulda made Koji's character in Frontier better is being a girl. I know that's kinda sexist and I honestly don't mean to offend any boys. Maybe I've been reading MiraclesVeemon's female Daisuke fics too much?

I made up the Crests of Compassion and Integrity, as you probably have guessed, based on the Crests Yolei and Cody inherited in canon. This is coz I think it'd be stupid if they don't have something that's in some form or another entirely their own like in canon Davis had the Golden Digiegg of Miracles besides the Digieggs of Courage and Friendship. In this fic, Yolei and Cody sort of inherited the Crests of Love & Sincerity and Knowledge & Reliability, but at the same time their Crests are theirs and theirs alone. In the second half, something that's already been heavily hinted at in my 'Digital Adventure' fic will be revealed about those two, as well as Tommy and some other kids (cyber cookies o anyone who can figure out what I'm planning!).

Also, the Crests react to those who have the same trait as their strongest virtue when said virtue is displayed. E.g. Tommy has plenty of courage, Yolei cares for her closest friend Cody a lot, and Cody is curious about things and uses any knowledge he has to solve problems. Thus Tai's, Sora's, and Izzy's Crests reacted to them. The same will happen with the other DigiDestineds; e.g. Tai's Crest would react to Takuya and Kari's to Koji, etc.

I hated how the older kids were practically cast-offs in canon. That's why they'll remain active in this fic, though not quite as much as the younger kids since the juniors have more time in their hands.

Anyhoo, I hope this fic is great. The next episode isn't gonna have much new stuff in it that deviates from canon.


	3. Episode 3

**Ep. 3. Duo of Light and Hope**

* * *

Yolei: We went to the Digital World again, but things took a turn for the worse when Tommy and Bearmon got captured by the Digimon Emperor. I didn't like being attacked by monsters at all either! But then we got to this temple where Cody and I got our Digimentals and met our partners. Not only that, but someone called Lady Ophanimon told us I'm the Child of Compassion while Cody's the Child of Integrity, whatever that means. We helped our partners to digivolve and saved our new friend. Life is never going to be boring again!

* * *

At Odaiba High School, Izzy wasn't paying attention to anything the teacher said, Since he had already completed all work and any homework the teacher would give for today's lesson, he could use the time to ponder over the recent events.

_Hmm… I wonder how Tentomon's doing? They said the Digimon Emperor never comes out at night, so he's probably there now enslaving innocent Digimon. Wait a second, that's it! He's a human, so we should use different tactics to fight him. We could try communicating with him. And if that fails, we can try again by figuring out his identity and talking to him again in the Real World. Well, I guess that could work._

Glancing at the board to make sure the teacher wouldn't notice what he was doing, Izzy pulled out his D-terminal from his school bag and opened it. By pressing a button that was at its side, he made a little keyboard pop out, then typed a message to the others.

'Anyone who can go to the Digital World after school today, meet up with everyone at the elementary school in the computer lab at four o'clock. I won't be there because I have a computer club meeting, but I'm sure there's someone who has the time to go to the Digital World to confront the Digimon Emperor and try to convince him what he's doing is wrong. Good luck!'

At another class in the same building, Tai was nearly nodding off. _Now I wish I had listened to Kari about doing my homework on time instead of in the middle of the night. The year has only started but they're already driving us like slaves. Speaking of slaves, what's the Digimon Emperor up to?_

Pulling out his D-terminal from his backpack to see if anyone was as bored as he was, Tai opened it to type a message to Matt, who was sitting three columns to the right from him at the other side of the classroom. He noticed that there was a message for everyone from Izzy, who apparently had finally started carrying his D-terminal around again.

After he read the message, Tai typed: 'Sure thing, Einstein. I'll go today.' Then he took an empty page from his notebook and crumbled it into a ball. Aiming at the blond's head, Tai threw the paper ball at his best friend.

It hit, making Matt turn to his best friend and give him a glare. But when he noticed Tai waving his D-terminal, he understood.

Just as the Child of Friendship was about to take out his D-terminal from his bag, he heard the teacher shout: "Mr Kamiya!" Both boys flinched and turned their attention to the old man who was walking towards Tai with his ruler in hand. He slammed it on the teenager's table, saying: "Since you have time to wave your arms about and don't think paying attention to a lesson is important, I assume you have plenty of time to stay after school for detention."

"What? No, Sir. Sorry," the brunette said hastily. Unfortunately, the teacher wouldn't hear of it. _Great! Now I gotta do some stupid extra work when I coulda gone to see Agumon. I hope he's okay…_

* * *

At that moment in the Digital World, Agumon was walking through the area he had agreed on guarding. It was the place where Tommy had gotten his Digimental two days ago.

Hearing the sound of a motorbike, the Rookie turned and caught a glimpse of someone in red going past quite a long way away. _Huh? Did I just see…? Nah, I must've imagined it._

* * *

In classroom 6-I of Odaiba Elementary School, Tommy was fiddling with his D-terminal, still wearing the cap backwards and the goggles over it despite the teacher's complaints. He found the message from Izzy and grinned, answering that he would definitely go and tell the other kids about it too.

After their lessons were over for the first half of the day, Tommy, Sara, TK and Kari headed to the computer room. On the way there, TK checked his D-terminal for new messages. "Tai, Matt, Sora and Izzy can't make it today. So I guess it's just us then," the Child of Hope said, re-pocketing his D-terminal.

"Who's Matt?" Tommy asked.

"My big brother. He's a DigiDestined too," T replied.

"How many of you are there?" Sara wanted to know, though she put on a mask of indifference.

"Eight. Me, Tai, TK, Sora, Matt, Izzy, a girl named Mimi who moved to America and a high school senior called Joe," Kari answered. She considered asking about Sara's team, but decided against it. _She and Tommy will probably tell us when they're ready to._

In the computer room, the In-Training Digimon, who had been left there for the day along with Patamon and Gatomon, were playing around when Wanyamon suddenly stopped his giggling. He bounced to the door and looked at it as humans' footsteps came nearer.

"Smells like Tommy," he whispered, sniffing the air.

"You saying I stink?" Tommy asked, opening the door with the other three preteens right behind him.

"It _is_ Tommy!" Wanyamon cheered as he jumped to his human partner's arms.

The other In-Training Digimon asked about their partners' whereabouts. "Don't worry, they'll be here soon," Kari replied as she smiled.

"Ah! I hear someone now," Tommy grinned and leaned back to see Yolei running up to them with a full grocery bag.

"Sorry I'm late, but I brought food from my family's convenience store," she said, showing the different treats in the bag.

"Good idea. In-Training Digimon are bottomless pits," TK remarked, smiling in his usual cheerful way. Tommy nodded in agreement.

"Can we eat this?" Upamon asked as Yolei placed the open bag on the ground. He and the other two hadn't eaten anything after coming to the Real World, not really sure what was food and what wasn't.

"Yeah, watch this," Patamon said, taking a drink from the bag and opened it before shoving it into his mouth.

"Wow, this is good!" Wanyamon said as he sucked on a bar of chocolate, while Upamon munched on a bag of crisps.

"Yes, it's great! The best I've ever had in the whole two days of my life!" the pale yellow Digimon cried, jumping up and down. Patamon laughed at his new friend's antics, while Poromon tried a hot drink.

"GHAAAAAAAA! IT'S HOT! HOT! HOT!" he cried flying around the room, before bumping into the other three small Digimon as they ate. Upon collision they burst into giggles.

Gatomon watched the lower-level Digimon with an annoyed look. "I hope my litter doesn't act like this," she mumbled.

"Is the portal open?" Tommy asked, when his cell phone rang. He left the room when he saw who was calling.

"It's open!" Yolei cheered from her seat in front of the computer.

"Yello?" Tommy said to his cell phone, standing in the corridor.

"Hey, Tommy! Is it okay if I come by your school now? I want to see if the others and I can go to the Digital World through that Digiport thingy," the person on the other end said. Tommy nodded and agreed that it was fine, adding that the others shouldn't even be asking him permission. "Yeah, I know, but Zoe woulda had my head if I don't ask first," the caller laughed. Tommy laughed too.

"Hold on, we have to wait for Cody," Kari said as Tommy returned into the computer room accompanied by the smaller boy who had just arrived.

"Hey, Kari," Gatomon said, walking up the brunette girl.

"What is it, Gatomon?" Kari smiled softly at her partner.

"We're ready to go back to the Digital World," the cat Digimon stated.

"Well, everyone's here now so lets go," Tommy said, taking out his digivice and pointing it at the computer screen. The others nodded and followed the brunette into Digital World.

* * *

"You guys are back to normal," Cody gasped as he stared at the Digimon.

"We change back when we return to the Digital World," Armadillomon grinned as Hawkmon laid next to him and Bearmon. TK explained that it was because the Digimon use up more energy in the Real World because it wasn't their home world.

Suddenly everybody's digivice went off. "Huh? Maybe there's a Digimental close by," TK said, staring disbelievingly at the small screen of his little digivice.

"A Digimental?" Yolei blinked, looking around.

"Maybe it's Sara's," Kari suggested. "Whoever it belongs to, we should check it out." The others agreed and they all started to walk in the direction of whatever the digivices were detecting. The area was very similar to the one where Tommy's Digimental had been found.

"It's just up there ahead of us," Cody mumbled after a while, glancing down at his digivice.

"What are you doing here?" a voice growled angrily.

"Ah, look it's the Digimon Emperor!" Yolei cried out as the spiky-haired boy seemed to appear in front of them from thin air.

"Damn," Sara muttered under her breath. She and the other Warriors (save for Tommy) didn't have a D-terminal, so she couldn't know about the others' plan of talking to the boy.

"Look, we don't want any trouble," Tommy said, "We just wanna talk to you." He walked over to the Emperor and held out his hand in an offer of friendliness. The Emperor smirked and pushed his hand through Tommy.

"He's not really there. It's an illusion!" TK said in realization, glancing around him.

"What do you think you're doing, sneaking into the Digital World?" the illusion-Emperor asked, looking from one child to the next.

"What's he going on about?" Kari asked.

"The Digital World belongs to me and I don't take kindly on trespassers," the Emperor said, making everyone glare at him, especially the Digimon.

"No, it doesn't!" Sara snapped. If the boy before her wasn't an illusion, she would have tackled him and given him a punch to the face for that comment. "The Digital World doesn't belong to anybody, it's the home of Digimon like our world is home to us. The only ones who could be allowed to consider it as theirs are Lady Ophanimon, Lord Seraphimon and Lord Cherubimon!"

The Digimon Emperor and everyone else except Tommy looked at her in surprise, but the Emperor got over his quickly and vanished. The others were trying to figure out who the Lady and Lords Sara mentioned were, when they heard a loud roar.

Everyone looked around and saw the real Digimon Emperor riding on a red T-Rex's shoulder. It was a Tyrannomon and had a dark ring around its neck. "You are in a place where you don't belong. You have 24 hours to leave," the Emperor yelled down at them.

"Wow, the landlord told my uncle the same thing" Tommy joked with a straight face. Kari bit her bottom lip to stop herself from giggling while Sara shot her cousin an annoyed look.

"We have just as much right to be here as you do!" TK yelled angrily, all joking aside.

"This world and everything in it belongs to me so all of you get out!" the Emperor said, leaning on the Digimon's head.

"Try and make us," Yolei said, walking forward while glaring at the spiky-haired boy.

Cody shook his head, not surprised. _I should tell her that we were supposed to convince that guy what he's doing is wrong. But she won't listen anyway…_

"Get them, Tyrannomon," the Emperor ordered the large Digimon.

"Blaze Blast!" Tyrannomon yelled as he shot fire out of his mouth. Everybody ran out of the blast's way.

"Is that all you've got?" Tommy yelled at the Emperor, who growled at his bravado. He pulled out his changed D-tector and held it up. "Digi-armour-energize!"

"So much for talking to him," Cody mumbled as Bearmon began to glow with the by-now-familiar light.

"Bearmon armour digivolve to… IceLeomon, Icy Warrior of Justice!"

"Ha, now this is why I'm a genius. You keep using the same attacks while I keep coming up with new ideas," the Emperor said from his spot on the Tyrannomon's shoulder, feeling over-confident.

"You know, he's got a point," Tommy said, looking at the others who frowned. He turned his attention back to the Digimon Emperor, remembering how he had seemed vaguely familiar yesterday. _Doesn't matter. Once all this is dealt with, I can talk to him peacefully and find out why he seems familiar._

Then Tyrannomon let out a growl and charged at IceLeomon, sending him backwards. IceLeomon did a back flip before pushing himself off one of the trees.

"Fist of Ice!" he yelled, attacking the dinosaur. Tyrannomon spun around and knocked the lion-man away with its tail.

"Now Yolei?" Hawkmon asked, looking at his partner.

Yolei nodded and held up her digivice. "Digi-armour-energize!"" she yelled.

The Rookie bird Digimon glowed and transformed. "Hawkmon armour digivolve to… Halsemon, Wings of Compassion!"

Yolei jumped onto Halsemon's back just before he took of into the air. "Blaze Blast!" Tyrannomon yelled, attacking Halsemon and Yolei, but they easily dodged the attack.

"Tempest Wing!" Halsemon yelled sending two beams from his eyes, attacking the Tyrannomon, sending him backwards with a loud thump.

"Do you really think I wouldn't have a back up plan?" the Emperor yelled as more Tyrannomon appeared all around them.

"There are five of them now!" Yolei cried looking around.

"Ready Armadillomon?" Cody asked, turning to look at his Digimon partner. He knew Submarimon would be disadvantaged, but felt that he should at least try to help out with the fight if he had even a small chance to do so. The others needed his help and he wouldn't be a reliable friend if he didn't do something.

"Ready when you are," the Rookie armadillo Digimon nodded.

"Digi-armour-energize!" Cody yelled, holding up his digivice.

"Armadillomon armour digivolve to… Submarimon, the Reliable Guardian of Seas!"

"Why don't you let us digivolve so we can fight? What are you afraid of?" Gatomon yelled at the Digimon Emperor as Patamon came up behind her.

"Yeah!" he yelped.

"As long as I have this digivice, you'll never digivolve," the Emperor replied before smirking at them, holding up a digivice identical to the new ones except that it was dark purple with black grips. "And besides, you two are useless. I might as well get rid of you now."

"Leave them alone!" TK yelled and Kari gasped as two of the Tyrannomon attacked their partners, sending the two un-evolved Digimon flying so they hit a couple trees before falling to the ground.

"I thought that cats are always supposed to land on their feet," Patamon joked, then groaned.

"Oh shut up," Gatomon moaned back before both of them jumped up and dodged another attack.

But as another attack came at them they were saved by Submarimon shooting his Oxygen Torpedo attack at the two Tyrannomon attacking the duo, taking their attention away from the targets.

"Hello boys," Submarimon laughed, though he could feel the toll of trying to move around with only four small flippers. It was like having a whale stranded on a beach!

"That's not fair, we're out numbered!" TK cried out as Yolei nodded in agreement.

"Have you heard of the old saying 'it's not how you play the game, it's about if you win or lose,'" the Emperor mocked. He could tell that Submarimon was having almost as hard a time as Patamon and Gatomon, so he thought that Armour Digimon would be the next to get taken care of.

"It's the other way around," Tommy mumbled. He then saw a Blaze Blitz headed for Sara, and raced to knock her out of its way. The Himi cousins tumbled on the ground before getting right back up.

"Are Kumamon and Korikakumon answering you yet?" Sara asked the cap-wearing goggle-head. He shook his head. "Damn it! Mine won't answer either, and without a Digimon partner I'm completely useless." The others didn't hear her, although TK did notice that whatever Sara was saying can't be good based on her expression.

"We should go find the other Digimental," Cody said to the others, looking down at his digivice. It showed that whatever it had detected was very near.

"But, Cody, we don't even know who it belongs to," Yolei said to him.

"It doesn't matter. It's worth a try," Tommy decided, turning to look at them.

"Come on guys!" Cody yelled, running off into the woods.

"Gatomon, this way!" Kari cried out.

"You too, Patamon," TK agreed. _Wait, maybe Kari and I could use our Crests to help at least a little._

"Yeah," both Digimon agreed and ran over to their partners. TK focused on the memory of giving Angemon the arrow three years ago when they battled VenomMyotismon.

_Flashback_

_"Angewomon!" 9-year-old Kari called._

_"Angemon, listen up!" TK yelled._

_Both of them were holding their Crests in their hands. The Crests of Light and Hope glowed pink and yellow respectively for a moment, then white beams of light shot from the Crests to the two angel Digimon in the sky and became arrows in their hands._

_End flashback_

TK's Crest glowed faintly beneath his sweater, but the Emperor seemed to notice this. Although he didn't know what the blond was doing, he decided to stop him anyway by holding up his dark digivice. The Crest of Hope stopped glowing.

"Darn it!" TK growled, shooting the one responsible an icy glare. He didn't usually act hostile towards others since it wasn't in his nature, but the Digimon Emperor had just nullified whatever faint chance Patamon had of fighting back.

"TK, it's no use. We have to go!" Kari called to the Child of Hope. He turned around and ran with Cody, Kari and Sara going on ahead.

"We'll hold them off!" Yolei yelled to the retreating children from the sky, and Halsemon attacked one of the Tyrannomon again.

Another Tyrannomon turned to attack the retreating DigiDestined, when IceLeomon rushed in front of it. "Where do you think you're going?" he asked before attacking it with his Crystal Breeze, while Patamon shot his Boom Bubble at one of them.

"It's no use, Patamon, run!" Gatomon yelled.

"Over there!" Sara yelled leading them to a cave. _I hate running away like a coward!_

The four children and two Digimon entered the cave. After resting a bit, they noticed something further in the cave. Two new Digimentals! One was white and had cat ears and two paws, with a pink flower symbol on it. The other was golden-bronze with two tiny orange ears and a yellow symbol on it.

"Hey, that egg has the Crest of Light on it! And the other one has the Crest of Hope! Wow, come on!" Kari yelled, running over to them.

"You're right," TK said, looking at the two Digimentals in surprise.

"Then those Digimentals must belong to the two of you," Gatomon said.

"But we already have our Digimon," Kari said, turning to look at partner.

"You'll never know. Just try it," Gatomon said, Sara murmuring agreement.

_Kari has the Crest of Light? That's so weird. Koji is the Warrior of Light and Kari's nothing like her!_ the Warrior of Water thought with her arms crossed.

"Gatomon's right. Lets try it," TK said, looking at his best friend.

TK and Kari gasped when their digivices suddenly started to glow like Tommy's had done the day before yesterday. They pulled them out and watched as they turned into the new digivice model. TK's was white with lime green grips, Kari's was white with pink grips. They re-pocketed their digivices, then both reached down and picked the eggs up.

"So light," Kari gasped, a pink stream of light starting to flow up from the Digimental of Light's previous spot.

"I never knew I was that strong," TK said. A similar yellow stream came from where the Digimental of Hope had been.

"Wow, I feel funny!" Patamon yelped as he became covered in a bright glow.

"Patamon armour digivolve to… Pegasusmon, Flying Hope!" Once the glow faded, in Patamon's place was a golden-bronze armoured house with light yellow wings and tiny Patamon ears.

"My fur's standing on end!" Gatomon yelped as a bright glow started to cover her as well.

"Gatomon armour digivolve to… Nefertimon, Angel of Light!"

When the light around the cat-like Digimon disappeared in her place was a leopard-sized version of Gatomon with white wings and an Egyptian-like mask on her face.

"You're so beautiful," Kari giggled, hugging her new Digimon. "And the best part is now that you can fly, we don't have to walk anymore."

"Easy, Kari. We have to break these wings in," Nefertimon laughed.

"You're so cool, Pegasusmon. This is great, my very own Armour Digimon," TK laughed, hugging his Digimon partner happily.

"Lets go help the others," Pegasusmon said as Cody and TK jumped onto his back and Kari boarded Nefertimon. The feline offered to carry Sara too, but the Warrior of Water shook her head and decided to follow them on foot.

* * *

Tommy, Yolei and the three Rookies (who had gotten beaten so badly they lost the energy needed to maintain their Armour form) were surrounded by the Tyrannomon pack at the edge of a small cliff.

"Tommy, Yolei, we're here!" Kari cried as Nefertimon and Pegasusmon swooped in. They landed and the riders jumped down.

"Oh wow! Too cool," Armadillomon gasped.

"This Armour Digivolving won't always save you. It's just a matter of time before I learn how to stop that too," the Digimon Emperor said with a scowl.

_Nefertimon? But isn't she Lady Ophanimon's library's guardian?_ Tommy thought, staring at the cat Armour Digimon.

"Golden Noose!" both of the new Armour Digimon yelled, jumping into the air and rounding up the Tyrannomon by golden chains that formed when the armour around their paws glowed and they passed each other. The duo attacked the dark rings around the Tyrannomon's neck, destroying them.

The Digimon Emperor put his hand into his mouth and whistled, calling for the Devidramon. He abruptly jumped on it and fled, consenting to the fact that he had lost this time too.

"Yeah! Their dark rings are gone!" Yolei cheered.

"I wanna get a picture of this," Kari said, taking a picture of the Tyrannomon starting to get on their way home. The sun had just begun to set, the children and Digimon had been in the Digital World all afternoon.

"Well, so much for Izzy's plan," TK said. Pegasusmon and Nefertimon dedigivolved back to their normal forms, making their human partners' Crests as well as D-terminals' and digivices' screens temporarily glow by their respective Crests' colour. TK pulled his tag out and looked at it, then his D-terminal. They both were showing the same thing on the screen, the Crest of Hope. Same with Kari's Crest of Light. This was the same thing that had happened to Tommy, Yolei and Cody.

Unknown to them, two teenage boys were watching them from behind some trees. They had only arrived in time to witness Nefertimon and Pegasusmon free the enslaved Digimon. Both of them had been surprised to see Nefertimon, and even more so to see Pegasusmon dedigivolve into a Patamon.

The younger one of the boys whispered to his friend: "Come on, lets get back before we're caught." His companion nodded.

* * *

"This is really starting to get on my nerves," Sara mumbled when the children again landed in a dog pile. They all got off one another and Yolei looked at the Digiport. It had closed again.

There were growls from many stomachs, both human and Digimon. "I'm starving!" all five Digimon chorused, the three In-Training's complaint coming out as a childish whine.

"Don't worry, I'll give you dinner at home, Wanyamon," Tommy said, picking up his partner.

The blue furball laughed in his lispy voice and yelled joyously: "YAY!"

On their way out, the DigiDestineds met three teenagers, one of them wearing the uniform of Odaiba High School and the other two dressed in the navy blue uniform of Jiyuugaoka High School (which was in Shibuya). The Digimon at once went into "plushy mode" at the sight of the two strangers.

"Tai!" Kari exclaimed, running forward and smiling up at her brother. "What are you doing here?"

"Well… It took me a while to get the extra work done," the Child of Courage replied, scratching the back of his head. "So how'd it go?"

"Not so good. I doubt talking will get us anywhere," his sister replied with a frown.

"JP, Takuya! What're you two doing here?" Sara asked the other two teens, the younger one having cocoa brown hair sticking up in a tuft and hazel eyes and the older one having short-cropped brown hair and matching eyes. Both of them were smiling down at her and Tommy.

"We came looking for you and Tommy. Taky here called him earlier," JP said, elbowing the younger teen. "A few minutes ago we ran into this Taichi dude. Wait until Koji hears of this!" He had grown some more muscle over the years, although the 16-year-old still carried around a dozen chocolate bars with him.

"Who's Koji?" TK asked Tommy.

"One of Takuya's best friends," the goggle-head replied. "Hey, JP, what do you mean?"

The Warrior of Thunder smiled knowingly, turning to the other teen DigiDestined. "Listen to this. Taichi, Takuya, what's your hobby?"

The Warrior of Flame and the Child of Courage grinned at each other, saying at the same time: "Soccer."

"Favourite colour?"

"Red."

"Favourite past time?"

"Annoy Matt," Tai said. At the same time, Takuya replied: "Annoy Koji." Yolei and Kari giggled.

"I arrest my case," JP said as everyone laughed. The Digimon didn't really understand, but since they knew they had to pretend to be stuffed toys, they couldn't ask.

"So, Tommy, Takuya here mentioned that you're quite a good soccer player," Tai said as the DigiDestined walked out of the school and down the street.

Tommy nodded. "U-huh. Sara and me have played small matches with Takuya ever since we were little. She's in the school team too, I think." His cousin nodded.

"So you planning on joining?" Takuya asked. Tai grinned as he had been about to ask the same thing.

"Please don't. I don't think we can take having another soccer-crazy goggle-head," JP joked. Takuya mock-glared at him as everyone laughed.

"Haha," the Warrior of Flame said sarcastically.

"Actually, I was thinking of doing that. Aunt Mai was complaining to me yesterday that I should go out more instead of playing videogames all the time," Tommy said, "Hey, are you two going to spend the night, or will you catch the train back to Shibuya?"

"Wish we could stay, but my mum would be furious if I stay over when there's school, not to mention what Aunt Mel would say," Takuya said, JP mumbling in agreement. They walked off to the direction of the train station, the Warrior of Flame calling out over his shoulder: "It was great meeting you guys. Hey, Tai, lets hope our schools will get matches against each other, right?"

"Right! See ya, Takuya!" the Child of Courage called back. _Yep, you and me are definitely going to get along great,_ he thought. Turning to the younger DigiDestined, he said: "Come on, guys, lets all go home."

With that, the DigiDestineds separated. The same thought was going on in all the younger kids' minds: _I wonder what will happen tomorrow?_

* * *

To be continued…

* * *

The Digimon who came from under the Digimentals can't remember their lives from before they met their partners, but they slowly regain their memory. Kinda like how when you sleep for a week you can't remember how to walk for the first few hours.

I don't really have anything to say, except that I hope you readers tell me what you think through reviews. See ya!


	4. Episode 4

**Ep. 4. Steamed vegetables**

* * *

Sara: Too bad we got attacked by a pack of Tyrannomon the other day. Of course, that dork Digimon Emperor decided to make an appearance and annoyed the crap out of me with his "I own the Digital World" talk. As much as I hate to admit it, I ran off with TK, Cody and Kari since I still couldn't spirit evolve. We found two new Digieggs, and Gatomon and Patamon armour digivolved. Am I gonna be completely useless around here?

* * *

_An 11-year-old boy with messy dark blue hair and matching gentle eyes was standing before a corrupt Cherubimon, looking up at the Mega with disdain. Next to him was a little girl no older than 8 years. She had auburn hair divided into two pigtails with the bangs kept out of her forest green eyes by a butterfly hairpin, and she was glaring up at Cherubimon even though she was holding onto the boy's trousers and shaking with fear. The five Warriors were many meters behind the two, beaten on the ground with scratches all over them and their clothes a little tattered. One of them even had a tiny trickle of blood coming from his bruised cheek._

_"We are not your pawns anymore, Cherubimon! You have no power over us!" the boy, Koichi, yelled._

_"I-I'm not g-gonna hurt my cousin or his-s friends e-ever again!" little Sara shouted._

_Cherubimon laughed. "Do you really think it was because of my control that you did what you did?" the villain said with an evil chuckle. "I offered the Spirits of Darkness to many candidates before you, Koichi, but they rejected them each and every time. Why? Because only you could use them, since your heart is filled with darkness. As for you, Sakura, didn't you choose the Spirits of Water yourself? Didn't you _ask_ to have them so you would never be scared again?" Sara looked down, ashamed. Cherubimon smiled smugly." That's what I thought."_

_"So what? It doesn't matter!" Koichi shouted angrily, placing a comforting hand on the little girl's shoulder. "You manipulated us, turning us against our families. We choose our own destiny and I will prove to everyone that Darkness can be used for good just as much as evil."_

_Sara looked up at the older boy in admiration. Mustering up her courage, she yelled: "Y-yeah! I can be the Warrior of Water and h-help the others!"_

_At that moment, Koji's and Zoe's D-tectors floated a few centimetres above the ground, their screens lighting up with a bright white light that soared through Koichi and Sara, making their hair and clothes flutter. From Koji's D-tector, the tainted Spirits of Darkness flew out through the light and stopped in front of Koichi, transforming to resemble black lion-like shapes. From Zoe's D-tector, the blue tainted Spirits of Water flew out and stopped in front of Sara, their shape having changed on the way too. Two D-tectors, a black one with a grey grip and a turquoise one with an aquamarine grip, appeared before the two children._

_"They have purified the Spirits of Water and Darkness!" Bokomon exclaimed from his spot behind a rock._

_Koichi and Sara glanced at each other, the older boy giving the little girl a reassuring smile. They then focused their attention back to the D-tectors and grabbed hold of them as two Spirits went into each. The screen of Koichi's D-tector showed Lady Ophanimon's symbol as her voice said: "It is time."_

_Taking a step away from the 8-year-old, Koichi put up his left hand. A ring of fractal code appeared around it, and he brought his hand down as he dragged the ring against the scanner of his new D-tector. "Execute!" A strip of data came from his D-tector. "Spirit Evolution!" he yelled as the data looped around him in a helix and one of the black shapes appeared over him, the 11-year-old getting completely covered in a fractal code cocoon. When it disappeared, in his place was a red-eyed man wearing lion armour and wielding a staff and a shield._

_"Lowemon!"_

_"That's Koichi?" Tommy wondered aloud._

_"Multo cool!" Zoe exclaimed._

_"That's the true Warrior of Darkness, Lowemon," Bokomon said, looking at his book._

_"Wow," Sara gasped, staring up at the Warrior before her._

_"That's Koji's brother!" Takuya said cheerfully, which made the normally stoic lonewolf crack a grin._

_"What is this?! Impossible!" Cherubimon exclaimed, displeased._

_Sara turned her attention to her cousin, and saw that he was looking at her encouragingly. He slowly nodded. Understanding, Sara nodded back before turning to glare at Cherubimon. "I am gonna beat you and save the Digital World!" she declared, the screen of her D-tector lighting up with Lady Ophanimon's symbol._

_"It is time."_

_Smiling, Sara held forward her left hand (like she had seen Tommy do) as a ring of fractal coded data appeared around her hand. She dragged it against the scanner of her D-tector, calling out: "Execute" A strip of data came from her D-tector. "Spirit Evolution!" she yelled as the data looped around her in a 3D cross and one of the blue shapes appeared over her, the little girl getting completely covered in a fractal code cocoon. When it disappeared, in her place was a blue and white nymph with light turquoise wings on her back._

_"Seirenmon!"_

_"The Warrior of Water, Seirenmon," Bokomon stated, looking at his book._

_"Yeah! You go, cuz!" Tommy cheered. Seirenmon turned to him and gave him a happy smile for the first time after all the trouble she had caused._

_Catching her cousin's eye, she thought gratefully: _Thanks, Tommy. _The world then faded to black as a loud sound pierced through the air..._

Sara awoke to the sound of her soccer-ball-shaped alarm clock beeping. She glanced at the object on her bedside cabinet. The digital clock showed that it was 6:45.

Groaning, Sara got up and dressed. She then went and poked her head into Tommy's room. At the sight of Wanyamon sleeping on Tommy's head with his tail hanging over the brunette's face and nearly going into Tommy's mouth as he snored, Sara giggled. _Doofuses,_ she thought fondly, closing the door.

"Morning, Sakura. You're up early," her father said as she walked by her parents' bedroom (he always called Sara and Tommy by their actual birth names). Mr Himi was already half-dressed in his business suit, and Mrs Himi was by now in the kitchen putting food ready for Max the puppy and starting to cook breakfast.

"Morning, Dad. I thought I would go to the beach before school," Sara replied.

"Sure, as long as you don't go swimming. I don't want any letters from school saying you have arrived late and soaking wet."

Sara rolled her eyes. "That was just two times, Dad," she said, then headed for the kitchen.

* * *

Later that morning at Odaiba Elementary School, Tommy and a few boys from his year who were in the soccer team were playing a quick game near the school building at break time. Sara had snuck to the beach for the time being, and had threatened to kick Tommy's butt if he didn't alert her of the break's end via his D-tector.

TK happened to walk by the playing boys, and was noticed by Tommy. "Hey, TK!" the goggle-head called, waving to his new friend. "Why don't ya join us kicking the ball around?" he invited.

"No, thanks. Soccer isn't really my thing," the hat-headed blond replied. "You know, maybe you guys shouldn't play so near the classrooms."

"Nah, you worry too much," Tommy said in his usual happy-go-lucky way. One of the other boys passed the ball to him a second later, and he kicked it hard. Unfortunately, it was too hard as the ball went soaring all the way through the air and right through a window.

The broken window was opened and a man with a big grey moustache stuck his head out, asking in a furious tone: "Who kicked that?" All fingers pointed to Tommy, who was smiling sheepishly and scratching the back of his head. "You, into the office, now!" With that, the principal retreated.

"You're in trouble now, Himi," one of the boys said, laughing although it wasn't in an unkind way. Another slapped the cap-headed brunette's back and gave him a noogie, much to the Warrior of Ice's annoyance. He mock-glared at them.

TK came over. "'Worry too much', huh?" the Child of Hope asked, elbowing Tommy to the ribs in a friendly way. Tommy just laughed, not really worried about being in trouble. This amused TK and the other boys.

* * *

After getting a good long scolding from the principal, Tommy got detention (which, as usual, included extra school work that had to be done during the detention) and also was put in lunchroom duty for the rest of the week. Therefore he couldn't go to the Digital World with the others that day at lunch time.

"Where's Tommy?" Tai asked as he, Sora and Izzy walked into the computer room.

"Lunch room duty. He's got detention too," TK replied with a carefree grin. The goggle-head had told him, Kari and Sara about his punishment in class.

"Why, what'd he do?" Tai wondered aloud.

"The idiot kicked a soccer ball through a classroom window. Just when the principal was in there too," Sara explained with a sarcastic smile. Tai and Sora laughed, remembering how Tai had done the same thing a dozen times during his time in OdaibaElementary School.

"Aw, phooey," Wanyamon complained from his spot next to Cody and Upamon. Yolei was sitting at the computer with Poromon flying next to her head as Izzy taught the glasses-wearing girl how to put up the Digiport. It was open.

"Well, lets go!" Tai said.

* * *

They arrived in the forest area that Agumon was in, and Tai had a happy reunion with his partner. Suddenly, a man in his early thirties showed up. He had brown hair sticking straight up in spikes and wore a light beige robe with a hood. "Izzy! And Tai, Sora, TK, Kari! Long time no see," the man greeted them with a smile.

"Who's the handsome hunk?" Yolei asked, and Sara promptly stepped on her shoe to snap her out of her swooning. This earned her a glare from the Child of Compassion.

"Who are you?" Kari asked the man.

"You kids don't recognize me? Well, I guess it's no surprise since the last time we saw each other I was older than your grandparents," the man laughed.

Realization dawned on Izzy's face. "Gennai!"

"Who's Gennai?" Yolei, Cody and Sara asked at the same time. Hawkmon and Armadillomon looked at each other in confusion, while Agumon, Patamon and Gatomon exchanged smiles.

"I'm Gennai. I might look like a human, but actually I'm made up from data mostly. That's also why I have become younger when the Digital World became in synch with the Real World's time. So, kids, I'm assuming you're here to free the Digimon Emperor's slaves?"

"Yeah, you're right," Tai said with a nod.

* * *

Soon the group found themselves at a small coliseum that had been recently built in the forest. Gennai had instructed them on where to find it before he left, saying that he couldn't join them because he was searching for something under Lord Seraphimon's orders (conveniently forgetting to mention who Lord Seraphimon actually was). The DigiDestineds and Digimon hid in trees that had a fairly good view of what was going on inside the coliseum.

"This is awful," Yolei muttered, as the group saw the Digimon Emperor sitting on a throne-like seat watching in cruel amusement as two of his Gotsumon slaves were literally bashing heads in the ring.

"That jerk!" Tai growled.

"How can he find this funny?" Sora wondered aloud, glaring at the Emperor as he started laughing.

A few minutes later, the Emperor got up and walked away, some little green Digimon following him. After waiting for ten minutes, Tai decided it was safe to go free the slaves now.

* * *

"Thank you so much!" the freed Gotsumon were saying, shaking hands with each DigiDestined and chosen Digimon in turn as they all stood in a grassy plain far from the coliseum (which had been torn apart in just a minute by Halsemon, Nefertimon and Pegasusmon).

"Hey, do any of you by any chance know the whereabouts of the Warrior of Light?" one of the Gotsumon asked. His friends were clueless about why he would ask that, if their confused expressions were any indication.

The DigiDestineds (except for Sara of course) and chosen Digimon were confused too. They shook their heads, Kari asking: "No, why do you ask?"

"He's a really good friend of mine. It's been half a millennia since I last saw him, and I was hoping you guys know him. You are DigiDestineds, aren't you?"

"Yeah, but why is your friend called the Warrior of Light?" TK asked.

"You mean, you don't know?!" Gotsumon exclaimed, clearly aggravated. "What kind of DigiDestineds don't know about the Legendary Warriors? That's it, I'm outta here!" He ran off, muttering about how he would demand Pixiemon to explain why he had helped these incompetent idiots. The other Gotsumon ran after him.

The humans and Rookies and Champion looked the Gotsumon disappear out of sight, clueless on why one of the Rookie rock Digimon was so upset.

"The Legendary Warriors? I've heard of them!" TK exclaimed after some thought.

"You have? Who are they?" Izzy asked, opening his laptop and ready to type up everything the Child of Hope said about these mysterious Warriors. Leaning against a tree with her hands in her shorts' pockets, Sara pretended that she couldn't care less about what TK would say but actually was tense and listening intently.

"When I went to Primary Village for the first time, Elecmon told me that they're a great legend in the Digital World." He started explaining, his mind drifting to when he was 9 years old and first heard the story himself.

_Flashback_

_The tug-a-war between Elecmon and Patamon was won by the chosen Digimon flinging the bigger Rookie into the air as it caused Elecmon to let go of the rope and end up hitting one of the giant toy building blocks._

_"Sorry for attacking you. I thought you were a danger to my babies," he said, "Swanmon would have my head if I ever let anything happen to them."_

_"That's okay. Is Swanmon your friend?" TK said._

_"More like my teacher. She's the one who used to run this place but after I hatched I refused to leave when I became an In-Training level and so Swanmon let me help her. A few digi-years ago she decided I'm experienced enough to run this place myself. She told me that this used to be the Village of Beginnings back when the Legendary Warriors saved the Digital World, but since the Digital World changed so much thanks to that blasted Lucemon, Swanmon decided to change the name to Primary Village."_

_"Who's Lucemon?" Patamon asked._

_"A very evil Digimon that literally destroyed the whole Digital World including the Village of Beginnings. The Legendary Warriors managed to save all the Digieggs from the destruction and took them to one of the Digital World's three moons. See, those are the ones." Elecmon pointed to the sky at the three moons that had rose by now as the sun had just set._

_"There's three!" TK exclaimed in wonder._

_"Of course. If it weren't for those moons and the ten Legendary Warriors, there would be no Digimon left at all. The ten Legendary Warriors have saved the whole Digital World from Lucemon twice now. We owe them a lot."_

_"Cool. Hey, Patamon, wouldn't it be neat if you digivolved into one of those Warriors? I bet you'd be uber-cool just like a superhero!" TK started running about, imagining he himself was Patamon as a powerful and heroic Champion. Patamon joined him and the two laughed happily._

_End flashback_

"I kinda forgot about it afterwards," TK finished.

"Prodigious! So there's ten Legendary Warriors and one of them is the Warrior of Light. Maybe our Crests were partially based on these Warriors," Izzy said.

"What do you mean?" Agumon asked.

"Think about it. There are ten Crests, including the ones on Yolei's and Cody's Digimentals, and ten Warriors. Not only that, but one of the Warriors is Light and Kari has the Crest of Light. I doubt it's a coincidence."

_Oh yeah, it's a coincidence all right,_ Sara thought with a hidden smile. If the Children Virtue's Crests had really been based on the Elements, they would have the Element marks instead of different symbols. Plus, there were no such thing as Warriors of Hope, Compassion and Integrity.

"I think we should head back now before we all get into trouble," Tai said, receiving nods in response.

"Hey, Yolei, is it all right if I borrow your digivice sometime soon? I have a theory about those things and would like to find out exactly how they differ from our older DigiDestineds' digivices," Izzy asked as the group started walking.

"Sure, Koushiro!" Yolei replied with a smile.

The 13-year-old smiled back at her. "Thanks, and call me Izzy. That goes for you two too," the Child of Knowledge said, turning to Cody and Sara. "Oh, and can I borrow your digivice too, Sara?"

"No," Sara said rudely, shoving her hands into her shorts' pockets. She fastened her pace, breaking away from the group even more than she already had been. She hadn't talked to anyone at all and walked a little to the side from the others, constantly keeping her distance from them. She hadn't wanted them to be involved with the rescue mission. And dropping out because of that wasn't an option, she wasn't going to stand aside and let these other DigiDestineds do everything.

Yolei shot the auburn-haired girl a glare. _I can't believe her! First she refuses to talk to us, then she's rude to Koush– I mean, Izzy! What the hell is her problem?_

The Child of Compassion was about to chew the other girl out for being so antisocial, when Izzy put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a look that said "Don't push it". He then turned to look at the back of the Warrior of Water's head. "That's fine, Sara. If you change your mind, let me know."

The group soon arrived at the TV they had come through. The humans held their digivices to the small TV's screen. Tai waved at his Digimon partner with a grin. "See ya next time, Agumon!"

* * *

"Aahh!" Gabumon cried out in pain as he once again hit the ground. He was badly hurt with bloody scratches and cuts all over him, having tried and failed to fight against RedVeggiemon who had caught him attempting to free a village of Gazimon. It was a day after Agumon and the others had freed the Gotsumon, and that had encouraged Gabumon to try and help these poor Digimon who instead of being made slaves were being worked to half-death by the Veggiemon, who were led by RedVeggiemon. Those onion-shaped Digimon were the Digimon Emperor's slaves and had been ordered to take over the Gazimon Village.

Finally having enough of beating up the weakened Rookie, RedVeggiemon wrapped his two vine arms around Gabumon and threw him into a nearby river.

Gabumon kept being tossed around by the current until he finally managed to grab onto a small boulder. He clambered onto it and saw that one of the riverbanks was near enough to jump to. So, he gathered up his remaining strength and jumped, tumbling over in a somersault as he landed.

Gabumon then headed for the TV that was on top of a little rock. He collapsed in front of it, moaning: "Matt…"

* * *

At Odaiba High School, Tai, Sora and Matt's history lesson was nearing its end. Something in the Child of Friendship's pocket started beeping, much to the teacher's annoyance. "Mr Ishida, there's only twenty-five minutes left of the lesson and then you kids can do whatever during break. Could you please turn off whatever it is that is making that noise?" she asked.

"Sorry, Miss," Matt muttered, taking his little pale blue digivice from his pocket. The screen was blinking red and the digivice still was beeping albeit more quietly now that it was in the Child of Friendship's hand.

"Gabumon!" Matt exclaimed, getting up and running out of the classroom.

* * *

Later that day, the youngsters (including Tommy, whose detention had ended early for the day and whom the others had been waiting for) gathered in the computer lab to go to the Digital World again. The door was suddenly opened as someone wearing the Odaiba High School uniform and who looked a lot like TK entered the room.

"Matt!" TK exclaimed, surprised to see his brother. "Don't you have school? And I thought you said you can't make it afterwards because of band practice?"

"I ditched and practice isn't until two hours from now. Besides, Gabumon's in trouble."

"Where's Cody? He shoulda been here, it's been half an hour I think," Upamon said.

"Is he that kid with the purple shirt and green eyes? I saw him on my way here and it looked like he was heading home."

"Oh yeah, Cody has kendo with his grandpa today," Yolei said, "I guess he forgot to tell us he's not gonna come."

"What's kendo?" Upamon asked. TK rolled up a magazine and hit the In-Training with it. At once, the little Digimon demanded: "What was that for?"

"You wanted to know what kendo is," TK replied with his usual carefree grin, making Tommy, Kari and the other Digimon laugh. Everyone then held their digivices to the screen and the room became empty in a bright flash of light.

* * *

When they arrived in the Digital World, they looked around and spotted a familiar light-blue-stomached yellow lizard Digimon who had a white blue-striped fur over him and a long yellow horn on his forehead.

"Gabumon!" Matt cried and ran over to the hurt Digimon.

The injured Rookie's eyes fluttered open. He looked up as he felt a hand touch him. "Matt, is that you?" Gabumon asked, pushing himself up.

"You okay?" the Child of Friendship asked.

"Lets just say I'll never look at vegetables the same again," Gabumon joked.

"Tell me everything that happened," Matt said, leaning down next to him.

"Good. We never talk anymore," Gabumon replied with a grin.

"Why do people call those things on top of the TV rabbit ears, why not cat ears? After all, when was the last time you saw a rabbit sleeping on top of a TV?" Gatomon suddenly said while looking back at the TV they had come through.

"This is what you think of?" Kari asked her Digimon partner as Tommy laughed.

"Why not? I think of doors that are made of chocolate that I can eat!" Bearmon commented, then grinned as Gatomon and Patamon giggled and nodded their heads in agreement. Their human partners shook their heads in disbelief at the two Digimon's tracks of thought.

"It's the Gazimon Village, the Digimon Emperor's Veggiemon slaves have taken over it and treat the villagers like cheap labour," Gabumon said as the group crossed a nearby bridge and walked beside the riverbank.

Just Matt was listening thoroughfully though, because the others (except for Sara who was staring off to the distance) were busy looking at their digivices and only partially heard what Gabumon said. Their digivices were reacting to something that was in the river and they wondered if it was another Digimental.

The group went over a hill that was next to the river and saw a village in the middle of the sandy area. The buildings were partially broken and resembled the houses from Disney's 'Aladdin' a little, and a black obelisk was at the back of the village on a small hillside.

"Look! It's one of those things again," Gatomon said, pointing over to the black obelisk.

"The Emperor calls them control spires," Gabumon said while he glanced around the place. They were nearing the village, planning on stopping a little way's away to plan.

"Those poor Digimon," Kari sighed as she gazed towards the village, catching glimpses of the Veggiemon hitting the Gazimon with their vine arms if the light-grey-furred Digimon didn't work properly.

"I remember those Digimon," Patamon remarked.

"Yeah," the blond siblings mumbled, a brief memory of meeting a Veggiemon who worked for a mean Digimon in a restaurant flashing through their minds.

"Patamon, tell us everything you know about the Veggiemon," Matt said as he turned to the orange and white guinea-pig-looking Digimon with ears that resembled a bat's wings.

"Okay," Patamon yelped as he flew down to land on TK's hat. "Their attack is Veggie Slush and their arms can stretch kinda like Palmon's Poison Ivy. That's about it."

"Okay, lets get our partners to armour digivolve and take on the Veggiemon, while Sara, Matt and Gabumon take the Gazimon to safety," Tommy said.

"We can't just fight them head on, we need a proper plan," Matt said rudely, which made the Warrior of Water frown.

"I'm with goggle-head," Sara said, crossing her arms.

"Well I'm not. I think it's better to get their guard down first, take the Gazimon from the village, then free the Veggiemon from the dark rings," TK said, receiving nods of agreement from the others. "That way there's no risk of the Gazimon getting hurt during fighting."

"Look, bucket-head, we've got plenty of experience with the Digital World and even if we hadn't I would be able to tell that your plan sucks," Sara said, crossing her arms.

Yolei had had enough. "What is your problem?" she demanded, clenching her fists.

"My problem? You guys are the idiots. Forget this, I'm out," the Warrior of Water said, marching off.

"Hey, come back! You can't just go off without us! You don't have a partner to protect and help you if you get hurt!" Sara didn't stop nor did she even acknowledge hearing Yolei. "Aargh, she's so infuriating! How can you put up with her, Tommy?"

"Sara's not exactly the friendliest person around, I'm sure you already know that," the Warrior of Ice said, rubbing the back of his neck. "But she did know what she was talking about, and you're wrong about her not having a partner."

"Really? How come Sara's partner isn't here then?" Kari asked, curious.

"We both had partners before I met Bearmon, but... well... it's kinda hard to explain. We haven't been able to see them for a long time," Tommy replied awkwardly, a little sad that the Warriors hadn't been able to contact their Spirits at all after returning to the Real World.

The others quietened at this, Matt, TK and Kari thinking that their partners might have been deleted like Angemon, and Yolei and Cody noting the slight sadness in the cap-headed boy's eyes.

Tommy then became his usual happy-go-lucky self again, saying: "How about this? We first go with TK's plan and if that doesn't work, we go with my plan." The others nodded in agreement.

"Stop right there," yelled a Veggiemon as the group entered the village gate, the humans and Gabumon tied up with rope and the other chosen Digimon apparently wearing dark rings around their wrists or stomachs.

"It's all right, we're one of you," Gatomon said as she raised her paw to show a black ring.

_Those guys didn't even realize that these rings are fake,_ Patamon thought as he stopped in front of the group.

"Where are you taking us?" TK asked, acting the part of captives as the group of Veggiemon began to push them forward.

"Pipe down," one of the enslaved Digimon ordered.

_I hope Bearmon doesn't blow this,_ Tommy couldn't help thinking, knowing his partner was so child-like and naive that he might easily forget about the plan and get angry at the Veggiemon if the DigiDestineds were treated too badly.

"This way!" yelled one of the Veggiemon as the other plant Digimon pushed the DigiDestineds and Gabumon into a cell and locked the door.

"Thanks for bringing them in, the Emperor will be pleased. But we could have caught them ourselves you know," a Veggiemon said to the chosen Digimon.

"Wow, he's full of it," Tommy said, making TK grin and Kari giggle. Yolei cracked a smile too, deciding to forget about her annoyance with Sara for now.

"You beat us to the punch," Veggiemon laughed, but then gasped as the chosen Digimon took off the fake dark rings.

"Speaking of punch, Lighting Paw!" Gatomon yelled and quickly punched Veggiemon, knocking him out cold. Then the chosen Digimon attacked the other Veggiemon too, knocking all of them unconscious and putting them into a cell. After helping the humans and Gabumon out, they ran down the same stairs they'd just climbed.

"Ah! Shh! Be quiet, there's more of 'em down there," Patamon yelped as he saw more Veggiemon waiting down at the bottom of the stairs.

"Oh, great, how are we gonna get to the Gazimon?" Armadillomon complained.

"The exit is blocked, we'll never get past them," Bearmon said.

"I'm tired of waiting. Lets fight," Tommy said, taking a few steps forward.

"Easy, kid, fighting isn't always the answer," Matt said as he grabbed Tommy's shoulder.

"Lets go back this way. We will come out on top by the control spire and can split off to free the Gazimon in pairs," Hawkmon said, pointing behind him.

"Good idea," Patamon said as he flew past them. Everyone started going up the hill at the back of the village. They soon were a few meters away from the control spire.

"Veggie Slush!" yelled a voice and something came shooting at them.

"Gah!" Gabumon yelped as he and the other Digimon fell down.

"Gabumon! Are you okay?" Matt asked.

"Yeah," Gabumon nodded and looked to see what had attacked them, only to see a red version of a Veggiemon with pummel spikes at the end of his vine-arms. "RedVeggiemon," the Rookie snarled, baring his teeth. He might technically be a lizard, but his instincts were canine.

"Chilli Pepper Pummel!" RedVeggiemon exclaimed, shooting red chilli peppers from his mouth at the humans. They brought up their hands to shield their faces.

Bearmon growled. "Leave Tommy alone!" he shouted, running forward to attack the enslaved Digimon. Gabumon would have joined him, but he was still too hurt to fight much. That, and Matt was restraining the Rookie in fear of his partner getting hurt more. Gatomon, Hawkomon and Patamon jumped forward to fight too, the Champion hissing.

"Bearmon!" Tommy called.

The Rookie attempted to drive a punch at the opponent's middle, shouting: "Karate Fist!" But he was knocked back by one of RedVeggiemon's pummel spikes before his fist could connect.

"And now for the side dish! Chilli Pepper Pummel!" RedVeggiemon yelled as he opened his mouth and shot out chilli peppers at the bear-cub-like Digimon, sending Bearmon onto his back. He then used his pummel spikes to hit the other two Rookies and Champion away, making Gatomon dodge by jumping nimbly while Patamon and Hawkmon flew back.

A dozen and a half Veggiemon showed up and tied their vine arms around the humans and Digimon save for Bearmon, stopping the younger humans from using their digivices to make their partners armour digivolve.

"Bearmon!" Tommy yelled as two Veggiemon jumped at him, making him drop his D-tector.

"Stink Jet!" RedVeggiemon yelled and launched a horribly smelly breath at the humans and Digimon, making everyone except the Veggiemon cough.

"Put me down or I'll squash you like a lemon!" Bearmon cried out as RedVeggiemon picked him up. He had heard one cartoon character say that to a bad guy on TV last night.

"Have you forgotten that I have the upper hand here?" RedVeggiemon rhetorically asked as he threw the cap-wearing Digimon around. He kept slamming the Rookie onto the ground, then lifting him up, then slamming him down again.

No-one was aware that a dark ring that was meant to be a spy camera was floating nearby.

* * *

A boy's voice chuckled in a dark room that was only lit by monitors. It was the Digimon Emperor, and he muttered to himself in amusement: "Well, this sure proves to be an interesting show."

* * *

"Bearmon!" Tommy cried out, trying to get him. _I can't believe I'm useless again! Twice now Bearmon's gotten into trouble and I haven't been able to do anything to help him! Maybe I wasn't meant to have become his partner after all._

"To make a great dinner, first you need to tenderize the meat," RedVeggiemon stated as he began to hit Bearmon, who was laying on the ground on his back. After some hits, the Rookie got up and kept doing so every time he was knocked down.

"Bearmon, stop!" Tommy whimpered as a few tears formed in his eyes for the first time in years, feeling worse than when two bullies had pushed him onto a Trailmon (not that he knew it was a Digimon at the time) when he was 8. This was worse than when Agunimon had to fight Cerberumon and the Candlemon alone during his first week in the Digital World. Worse than how Tommy had attacked his friends once during his first trip to the Digital World. _Bearmon is my partner! I've only known him for a few days, but he's become my best friend. I _have_ to help him!_

"I can't watch this," Gabumon whimpered.

"Bearmon doesn't stand a chance against him," Matt agreed.

"Stop it! You're hurting him!" Tommy yelled loudly as the mark for the Element of Ice briefly flashed on his forehead.

"Wha–?" Matt yelped along with TK.

"What's that mark?" Kari whispered. Yolei's eyes were wide.

"That m-mark! It's one of the Legendary W-!arrior's marks," RedVeggiemon yelped.

"You bet it is!" a voice called out, and everyone turned and saw Sara standing nearby with an unfamiliar little Digimon. It was green and white with floppy ears/antennae and a cute face. "Bucchiemon, walk all over that dork."

"Sure thing," the unknown Digimon, Bucchiemon, replied with a cheeky grin, and ran towards RedVeggiemon and Bearmon. Sara ran forward and tried to fight the Veggiemon to free her cousin and his new friends, whilst her new partner bounced around the injured Bearmon and RedVeggiemon as the latter tried to hit her. Bucchiemon kept taunting the plant Digimon: "Wow, you're redder than my twin when she gets mad at me. Is that what you call a hit? A Babamon could hit harder than you. Ooh, missed me, missed me, now you gotta kiss me! On second thought, I don't wanna get kissed by someone so ugly. Aw, come on, you can do better than that. Whoops, almost got me!"

At the last minute, Bucchiemon ducked when she was right in front of the Control Spire, causing RedVeggiemon's pummel spikes to hit the obelisk. It cracked a lot and some sparks came from it.

All the slaves' eyes returned from red to normal. The ones holding the children and chosen Digimon let go of them. "Oh...? Did I get married while I was asleep?" asked a Veggiemon as he and the others pulled off the dark rings around their middles.

"No," Kari giggled as she and Gatomon explained what had happened.

"I feel stronger," Gabumon said, wondering why he felt this way. _Maybe it's because Matt is here._ [It's actually coz the control spire's broken.] _Wait, the mark of one of the Legendary Warriors appeared on Tommy's head. But why? I should find my big brother and ask him. He knows a few of the Warriors personally._ Turning to his partner, Gabumon said: "Matt, I think I can digivolve now."

The Child of Friendship nodded, replying: "Lets try it then." He pulled out his digivice, and the screen of it flashed with a sky blue light. Gabumon started glowing.

"Gabumon digivolve to… Garurumon!"

The sight of the wolf-like Champion made Matt smile, bringing the memory of when Gabumon had first digivolved into his mind.

_Flashback_

_12-year-old Matt was being squeezed by Seadramon's tail, making the blond scream in pain: "Aaaaahh!"_

_"Gabumon, you gotta help my brother!" TK cried, tears trickling down his cheeks._

_"You're right. Matt's my friend and I can't let him get hurt!" the Rookie said, his body as well as Matt's digivice's screen starting to glow._

_"Gabumon, digivolve to… Garurumon!"_

_"Oh, wow!" TK said in surprise and excitement when he saw Matt's Digimon partner turn into a giant white wolf with blue stripes all over his body, pink claws and a feather-mane round his neck._

_The battle started when Garurumon set Matt free by hitting Seadramon's head with his right front paw, and went ahead to bite Seadramon on its back. The two Champions started fighting each other in the water, giving each other plenty of bloody cuts. Despite Seadramon having the advantage Garurumon wasn't doing too badly._

_Then Seadramon wrapped his body around Garurumon's middle and pulled him underwater, but let go when the light type promptly bit the sea dragon hard._

_While that happened, the children helped Matt out of the water when TK came over and tackled his brother to a hug._

_"Matt, I'm glad you're okay," he said when the older brother hugged the 9-year-old back._

_"Thanks." He looked back at the fight. "But, where's Gabumon?"_

_"He digivolved to Garurumon, that's him," Tai told the blond, pointing at the Champion. _

_Garurumon managed to whip Seadramon on the eye with his tail. Then the white wolf swam around with speed to get Seadramon distracted._

_Seadramon fought with this ice blast attack on the wolf, but Garurumon managed to break free. He slashed at Seadramon with his claws, making the sea dragon roar in pain as blood started seeping out from his wounds. Garurumon then used his attack Howling Blaster, sending Seadramon into the depths of the lake._

_Garurumon then swam like a dog as he used his front paws to push the tiny island to the lake's shore. He then glowed and shrank back into Gabumon _

_"Aw, Gabumon, thanks for saving my brother." TK said._

_"Anytime, young friend!" Gabumon said with a little shy blush on his face. Then TK look up at his brother._

_"Matt, you were so awesome against that monster!"_

_"Think so?" Matt asked with a happy smile._

_"You're the man," Gabumon said with a grin._

_The spiky-haired blond replied jokingly: "And you're the wolf-man!"_

_End flashback_

Matt's trail of thought was interrupted by Gatomon's voice: "I think the control spire is what controls the dark rings and stops us from digivolving. It makes sense that the Emperor would build something like that since he can't be waving his dark digivice everywhere all the time."

"I think you're right, Gatomon," Hawkmon said.

"Then lets get rid of that thing!" Sara declared.

Bucchiemon summoned water from the nearest water source (the river) and directed it to hit the black obelisk, calling out: "Whipping Waves!"

"Howling Blaster!" Garurumon shouted, shooting what looked like a sky blue stream of flames from his mouth. It hit the control spire too, and thus the black obelisk crashed to the ground in pieces.

Sara's Digimon partner glowed and dedigivolved, a blue beam of light going into Sara's digivice's screen and then from there into her shorts' pocket. She pulled out her new D-terminal and opened it, seeing the mark for the Element of Water appear on the screen. The dedigivolved Rookie looked like a green and white version of Lopmon with only one little horn on her forehead instead of three.

Grinning, the Rookie greeted everyone cheerfully: "Hiya, everyone. I'm Sara's new partner, Terriermon."

"Good job, Sara and Terriermon," TK said with a smile.

Her face uncaring, Sara turned away and went to pick up Terriermon, then started walking down the nearby train track that went over the hill. It was one of the two, three tracks in the whole Digital World, as there were no more Trailmon and so no need for tracks. No-one really knew what had happened to them, but it was most likely a result of the "Ancient Destruction" as some Digimon called it (the time when all of Digital World's fractal code ended up taken by Lucemon).

"Hey, where are you going?" Yolei asked.

Sara paused and, without turning to look at the others, responded coldly: "Where I go is my own business. Thanks for asking." She then resumed walking next to the track.

"Urgh, couldn't she be at least a little more social?" Yolei complained.

"You guys are from now on under the protection of Garurumon," Matt a little later said to the Gazimon from his partner's back, the Champion nodding at his human partner's words. "He can check up on you every now and then, and feel free to tell him if your village gets into trouble again."

"Garurumon!" the Gazimon cheered, doing something that seemed to be a dance of joy. The DigiDestineds laughed at this.

* * *

To be continued…

* * *

First off, I wanna say that I know Bucchiemon isn't in any way related to Terriermon (as in Nefertimon clearly being an evolution of Gatomon and Kumamon and IceLeomon both being ice types), but I wanted that rabbit (I think it's more like a rabbit than a dog) to evolve into something that looked a little similar. And I know Bucchiemon doesn't really have Ranamon's attacks, but that's something I made up to link her to the Spirits of Water. And I chose Terriermon as the last new Digimon coz I really wanted Sara to have the kind of a partner who would drive Koji or Rika or 01 Matt crazy, since she's loosely based on those three {as well as myself}. Plus, I happen to be a major Terriermon lover (I like BlackGatomon, Patamon, Veemon, Lopmon, Gabumon, Bearmon, Guilmon and Renamon a lot, but I like Terriermon the best of all.)

Tommy's voice is like Takato's. At least that's how I imagine it. (I know it's weird putting something like that here, but there ya go…)

By the way, I can't help putting this spoiler: the DarkOcean will have a slightly bigger role than in the show, though not much.

If anyone's wondering why I put Gennai in now, I always thought the series was stupid for not showing him before the near-end of 02. He was kinda important after all in 01 and just showed up out of nowhere near the end of 02. He's gonna pop up again a couple times before finally talking to the DigiDestineds near the end of the second half of this fic.

I'm gonna put lotsa flashbacks in this fic, coz I wanna avoid focusing too much on just the Frontier gang's past and wanna give the 01 gang a chance to recall some of their memories too. I'm gonna try having the 01 gang involved more than it was in the show, as well as developing the Digimon's personalities too. If anyone has any ideas for a cute In-Training Digimon scene, I would be glad to put it in.

I added Sara into the mix coz I figure it'll give the juniors' personalities a chance to show more (plus 02 was the only season that didn't have a clear lonewolf in the team, coz Ken doesn't really count and TK isn't exactly lonewolfy more like bipolar, I think. I'm a lonewolf, so I obviously couldn't help putting one into my fic).

Oh, and I'm gonna call the DigiDestineds' partners chosen Digimon, coz I think they were chosen to be the humans' partners like how the humans had been chosen as DigiDestineds. Makes sense, right? (Actually, I'll reveal a tiny interesting AU fact about the DigiDestineds at some point of this fic that has to do with why they of all people became DigiDestineds.)

Okay, I'm blabbing too much. I gotta stop writing so long author notes. Seriously.


	5. Episode 5

**Ep. 5. Trashy picnic**

* * *

TK: We went to the Digital World and freed a bunch of Gotsumon slaves, but the next day Gabumon was in trouble. So we went there and he told us about the problems at Gazimon Village. After pretending to be captives, we got to the control spire but then RedVeggiemon attacked us and started beating up Bearmon. Luckily, Sara and her new partner Terriermon saved the day.

* * *

Tommy was sitting in a tree with Wanyamon on his head. The Warrior of Ice was eating a bento of rice, boiled vegetables and chicken nuggets, giving his partner a bite every few minutes. Beneath him were the others, eating their lunch while their Digimon munched on a few snacks Yolei had brought from her parents' convenience store.

"Thank you very much for the snacks, Yolei. But aren't your parents going to get angry at you for always bringing stuff to school?" Kari asked, taking a bite from her sandwich.

"Not really. My two sisters and brother have tabs and work to pay off anything they eat, and the same goes for me. When I move out, I will have to pay in cash. But my parents never really mind if we take things since we pay back sooner or later," the Child of Compassion replied.

"Must be fun having parents who own a store," Tommy remarked.

"It does have its perks, but it can be really annoying too. I have to give up any extra free time I have to work there on evenings."

There were nods from the others, as they understood perfectly. They hadn't gone to the Digital World yesterday because each of them had something do to, like lots of homework, chores at home or after school clubs. They agreed on going there every day from now on, though, only not going if they truly had a very good reason (such as family commitments, illness, etc.).

"Hey, Kari, didn't your aunt own a bakery?" TK asked his best friend, picking up a rice ball from his lunchbox and giving it to Patamon.

Kari nodded, replying: "Yeah. It's in Shinjuku though, so we can't exactly just go there every day. Tai and I are going to visit our cousin there this weekend." After that there was a little more random chatter, until Tommy thought of something.

"I've an idea! What do you guys say we go to the Digital World and have a picnic tomorrow after school's over?" Tommy suggested, "Just relax and not worry about the Digimon Emperor while were there."

"That's a great idea!" Yolei at one agreed.

"I thought you were meeting with the computer club, Yolei," Cody pointed out.

"No, it was cancelled."

"I think I could eat these all day long," Poromon mumbled with his beak in a bag of crisps.

Sara, who was sitting a little way away from the others, didn't take any part in the conversations the others had. She was thinking about how she had a week ago met the little brown furball with four tiny feet, long ears and a bushy tail called Kyaromon. The In-Training was busy entertaining Patamon and Upamon about the crazy adventures her and her twin sister Kyaromon/Lopmon used to go on.

_Flashback_

_Sara was walking along the river bank, her D-tector in hand. It was detecting the new Digimental._

_The female Warrior looked at the crystal clear water and, without a second thought, jumped in fully clothed. She surfaced, took a deep breath, and dove into the depths of the river._

_The current was a problem though, and it took all of Sara's swimming skill and strength to avoid being swept away like Gabumon had been. Being the Warrior of Water, Sara had no trouble seeing underwater. So, she easily spotted something wedged between two rocks_

_Sara quickly swam deeper and saw that the object was the new Digiegg. It was shaped like an aquamarine and light blue egg with two antenna of some kind jutting out. The sky blue mark for the Element of Water was clearly on its front like the new Crests' symbols had been on Yolei's and Cody's Digimental._

_Sara hurriedly put her feet on the two rocks and reached for the Digimental with both hands, and pulled. It came off at once, but the girl could no longer hold her breath. So, she swam back to the surface, not noticing the stream of sky blue light that came from the egg's previous spot._

_Resurfacing, Sara gasped for breath. She looked at the Digimental in her right hand, wondering aloud: "Why did the Celestial Angels want me and Tommy to have these?"_

_The current was taking her well away by now and she didn't have the strength to fight back. Sara came to the same rock Gabumon had used to stop his river journey, and grabbed hold of the rock before pulling herself onto it. A small Digimon with quite long ears was in the water too, and Sara quickly grabbed one of its ears to stop it from being taken further down the river._

_The Digimon took big gasps of breath as it lay on Sara's lap. At last, it cracked its eyes open and said with a mischievous smile: "Are you a RedVeggiemon?"_

_Sara scowled. "No," she said, clearly not amused._

_"__Haha, I was just joking, geez! You're human, right? Are you the one who freed me from the Digimental of Water?"_

_"__Yeah, what of it?"_

_"__I guess we're partners then. Too bad you seem like a stick in the mud."_

_"__Watch it!"_

_End flashback_

_I guess it's good that I have a Digimon partner now too, but I wish my Spirits would answer me. Standing on the sidelines just doesn't cut it,_ the Warrior of Water thought grimly, biting onto a pear.

Someone then walked towards the group, three people in fact. One was a 15-year-old girl with long dark blue hair tied back to a ponytail, wearing a navy blue vest over a white blouse, black trousers (because she refused to wear the school skirt), and her old black-striped dark blue bandanna tied around her right upper arm.

The other girl was 15 years old too, with long blond hair and beautiful green eyes, and dressed in an identical uniform except that she had a black skirt and white stockings instead of trousers and socks.

The third person was a 12-year-old maroon-haired boy who wore a blue vest over a black shirt that had a white horizontal stripe on its middle and sleeves, brown shorts, and square goggles on his head.

And lastly, a familiar 17-year-old brunette wearing the same navy blue blazer over a white blouse, a red tie, and black trousers he had on the last time he was seen.

"Tommy, Sara!" the blond called, running over to greet the Himi cousins with a wide smile.

The Digimon at once went into "plushy mode" whilst Tommy was so surprised of the visitors' appearance that he fell backwards and right out of the tree. He landed on his back, and it took every bit of Wanyamon's willpower not to cry out as the two wielders of the Element of Ice hit the ground.

"Oh my god, Tommy!" the blond exclaimed in worry.

"Tommy, are you all right?" TK asked worriedly, helping his friend up.

"Eheh, never better. Man my back hurts, but it's nothing too bad." The cap-wearing boy was grinning to show that he only got hurt a little. "I've had worse falls than this, trust me."

"Maybe you should go to the nurse," Kari said anxiously.

"Nah, I'm fine. See?" Tommy replied, standing straight and showing the peace sign.

The dark-haired teen shook her head in amusement. "You and Takuya really need to stop climbing trees. Just yesterday he got into trouble for falling asleep in a tree and sleeping there right through the bell and the whole literacy lesson," she said, crossing her arms.

Tommy laughed. "Wow, he didn't tell me that when I called him last night."

"Hi, I'm Yolei," the glasses-wearing girl said to the older girls.

The blond replied with a "Hi", but the dark-haired girl just rudely turned away from Yolei without a word and focused her attention on the cap-wearing goggle-head instead. "Why aren't you introducing us to i tuoi amici, Tommy?" the blond asked, wagging her finger in mock-scolding.

"What does 'i to ami' mean?" TK asked, saying the foreign words wrong.

"It's 'your friends' in Italian. That's where I'm from," the blond Warrior of Wind replied.

"Oops, my bad. Guys, this is Zoe and that's Koji. They're close friends with me, Sara, Takuya and JP. The kid is my best friend Daisuke, Takuya's cousin." Tommy walked forward and bumped fists with the 12-year-old. "What the heck are you four doing here? Don't cha have school?"

"They let us out early because Takuya and Koji set the economics class on fire, so I decided to come visit you and invited JP and Miss Grouchy along," Zoe said, linking her arm with JP's who laughed at Koji's scowl.

"Dragged, you mean. And it wasn't my fault, Takuya's the one who thought putting half a litre of oil in the dough is a good idea," the Warrior of Light stated, annoyed.

Daisuke just shook his head. "Now I so don't want to go to that high school, or some of the teachers will give me a hard time because they hold a grudge against Takuya. Shinya said Miss Misumi's already trying to find any excuse she can to give him detention," the mahogany-haired boy said, clasping his hands behind his head. He wore Takuya's old light-beige-square-rimmed grey-lensed goggles, which were given to him as a birthday present when he turned twelve a few weeks ago. "So who are your new friends, Tom-Tom?"

"Don't call me that," Tommy said, mock-glaring. "That's Yolei, this is TK, her name's Kari, and the kid's Cody," he listed, pointing to each of his friends in turn.

"Good morning. It's nice to meet you," Cody said to the three people with a polite bow, while the others simply said "Hi".

"Wow, you're even politer than Koichi, and that's saying a lot," Daisuke laughed, slapping the smaller boy on the shoulder in a friendly manner. Cody smiled a little.

"Hey, Daisuke… What do you think Jun will say when she finds out you ditched school?" Sara asked, walking over with her arms crossed and a smirk forming by her lips. She was referring to Daisuke's older sister, Jun Kanbara, whom Daisuke rarely got along with. Their arguments were quite a joke between her and Tommy.

The effect was instantaneous. The Kanbara boy paled, stuttering: "I didn't– I mean– I swear if you tell her, I'll tell all the others about your embarrassing little secret."

Sara's smirk grew wider. "You wouldn't dare." Tommy looked at his cousin in confusion, not understanding what secret the two were talking about.

"Yes I would!"

"Then I guess you won't mind me getting _even_."

That made both goggle-heads' faces grow pale. "On second thought, I'm not thinking straight. See ya!" With that, Daisuke ran off in the direction he had come from. The five Warriors chuckled at his antics.

The bell rang. After a round of goodbyes, JP and Zoe walked off arm in arm while Koji decided to hang around with Sara after the younger girl would get out of school. Once inside the school building, Tommy mused absently: "Did JP finally get Zoe to go on a date with him?"

Sara shook her head, murmuring in hidden amusement: "Yup, all goggle-heads are clueless…"

* * *

The next day, the six DigiDestineds brought an extra bag or backpack to school each. When school was over for the day, they met up in the computer lab as usual. Yolei was looking at the map. "Hey, why do some areas show in black and others in white?" she pondered aloud.

"What do you mean?" TK asked, looking at the screen and seeing for himself. He saw that the majority of the tiny screens of the grid were white, but a lot of them were black.

Cody frowned. "Maybe the black areas are where the Digimon Emperor has built control spires and the white areas aren't under his control," he suggested after a bit of thinking.

"I'm guessing you're right, Cody, but I'll send a message to Izzy and ask him about it," Yolei stated, taking out her D-terminal from her pocket.

A minute later, two teenagers came to the door of the computer lab. This made everyone panic, and the Digimon went into "plushy mode" as a glasses-wearing 17-year-old boy with shoulder-length blue hair and a pink-haired 13-year-old girl entered. The boy wore a blue blazer over a white blouse, and pale grey trousers, the uniform of a private school in his home area of Nakano (where TK and his mother used to live before moving to Odaiba). The girl had on a white miniskirt, matching tight boots with thick heels, and a USA T-shirt that revealed her naval.

"Joe! Mimi!" TK and Kari exclaimed, smiling. Kari took a step towards the older girl and asked: "What are you doing here, Mimi? Shouldn't you be in America?"

"Actually, I entered an exchange student program and will go to Jiyuugaoka High School in Shibuya for the next two and a half months. I wanted to go to Odaiba High School, but it wasn't in the program," the Child of Sincerity explained. "I arrived today and just had to take a look at the school for old times' sake." She forgot to mention that she had called each and every one of the other older DigiDestineds and when none of them except Joe could come she had demanded the Child of Reliability come spend the afternoon with her in Odaiba.

"Where are you staying?"

"At Sora's. I can't wait for us girls to have a slumber party!"

Kari and TK laughed. _Trust Mimi to think of slumber parties the first day back home,_ TK thought in amusement.

"Hey, maybe Yolei and Sara can come too. What do you think?" Kari said.

"I'd love to!" Yolei at once replied. She had only once in her whole life spent the night at a friend's home, and couldn't wait to spend time with Sora. _Maybe I can get to know Mimi too. She seems so cool!_

"No way," Sara said rudely, which earned her a glare from Yolei.

"I thought you were busy studying, Joe?" TK said to the 17-year-old.

"True, but my class is in work experience for a week. I'm doing mine at the Odaiba Hospital, so expect a couple visits from me for a change at odd times of the day."

"Cool. TK and Kari told us you're a doctor," Tommy remarked.

"Not exactly, but I will be after I finish my studies," Joe replied with a small laugh.

"Are we going to the Digital World or not?" Sara asked, tired of waiting.

"The Digital World?" Mimi gasped.

"We're going there for a picnic," TK explained.

"Maybe Mimi can come with us!" Yolei giggled happily.

"I haven't been there in so long… would it be alright if I came along?" Mimi asked, tilting her head.

"Of course!" Yolei yelled as she waved her hand around.

"But Yolei, we haven't brought enough sodas," TK said simply.

"Oh no!" Yolei gasped. Sara snorted at that.

"Na, don't worry about it. Mimi can have mine," Tommy said as he smiled at the pink-haired girl, who smiled back. Kari offered to give her soda to Joe.

* * *

The preteens, Rookies and two teenagers arrived in a valley covered in deciduous trees, wildflowers and grass – it was beautiful. The sky was so blue without a single cloud in sight. There was nothing but rolling hills as far as the eye could see except for a tall old tree off in the distance.

"Lets go to that tree and picnic under it," Tommy said, taking the lead. Everyone headed there and they soon got to their destination. Throughout the walk, the DigiDestineds and Digimon chattered.

"I'm Tommy Himi," the cap-wearing goggle-head introduced himself, then placed his hand atop Bearmon's cap. "This is my partner Bearmon."

"My name's Yolei Inoue, it's so nice to meet you."

"Sara," the Warrior of Water said simply. She allowed a tiny smile show, as Mimi reminded her of Zoe. _But Z would never dye her hair her favourite colour._

Cody opened his mouth to introduce himself, but the others were talking so much that he didn't get the chance to put a word in edgewise. The girls (except for Sara who was lost in thought) were talking amongst themselves while Tommy and TK chatted with Joe about school, the Digital World and what they do on their free time.

"I'm going to join the school's basketball team tomorrow," TK was saying. "Our PE teacher recommended it to me today."

"Yeah, you'll be a star," Tommy said honestly.

"I love your clothes, Mimi. Your fashion sense is so stylish," Yolei gushed.

"Thank you, Yolei. I like your skirt," the Child of Sincerity replied with a kind smile.

Tommy started to hum a tune, and then he raised his voice to a song: "Digimon!

Look to the past  
As we head for the future  
To reclaim the Digital World.

With faith in ourselves  
And trust in each other  
We live by the lessons we've learned.

As we work towards one solution  
Through a spirit evolution.

Digimon!

Forever united as one.  
Digimon.  
Together the battles are won.  
Digimon.  
Through us let your spirit evolve.  
If we're all for one world  
There's a world for us all.

Digimon!

If we take our time  
And stick together  
Everything we do will go our way.

And if we try  
Now and forever  
No matter what comes next we'll be okay.

As we work towards one solution  
Through a spirit evolution.

Digimon!

Forever united as one.  
Digimon.  
Together the battles are won.  
Digimon.  
Through us let your spirit evolve.  
If we're all for one world  
There's a world for us all.

If we're all for one world  
There's a world  
For us all.

Digimon!"

"That's a cool song!" Yolei and Mimi said at the same time, making them and Kari giggle.

"Thanks. I made it up after returning home from my first trip to the Digital World," Tommy replied with a grin. What he didn't say though was that the others in his team had helped him and that Koji wrote the tune. The Warriors had all sung the song with Koji playing her electric guitar, and then JP had turned it into a CD. Each of the seven had their own copy.

"I'm hungry, when are we going to have our picnic?" Bearmon demanded in a whiny way that reminded Tommy of himself when he was little.

He patted his Digimon partner's head. "Soon."

"Wow. We would have never thought about having a picnic back in the old days because we'd be too worried about overgrown ants," Joe joked.

"You mean you would be. All you ever did was freak out," TK laughed.

"Oh, and none of the rest of us didn't? We were in an unknown world with monsters on the loose!" Joe snapped, but he was smiling to show he wasn't really angry.

"Of course we all worried, just not anywhere near as much as you did. You were a nervous wreck, Joe, but not anymore. Not to mention a life-saver whenever we got hurt. Besides, I thought this place was cool."

"You were nine, TK. Everything about the situation was cool to you."

"Except the fights," Patamon piped up. "I remember how terrified everyone felt when that Seadramon drew blood from Garurumon. That was the first time the seriousness of it all kicked in."

"Except for Tai, but then again, we don't want him or the others in any other way," TK said, nodding.

"Yeah, danger here and there really gave little time to truly relax," Tommy remarked. "But when push comes to shove, I would change nothing about the adventures Sara and I had."

To his delight, he saw that this big shady tree was the same meat-apple tree he and his friends had gotten one of their meals from during their first trip. He climbed up the tree with Bearmon and Gatomon while the others spread out the picnic blanket and food. The trio then jumped down with their arms full of meat-apples.

"If anyone wants a taste of these, we can cook up a fire," the newest leader stated as he and the two Digimon set the meat-apples next to the blanket in a pile before sitting down to eat.

Finally, Cody got the chance to introduce himself. He bowed to Joe and Mimi, saying politely: "My apologies. I am Iori Hida but please call me Cody."

"Aren't you just sweet?" Mimi giggled at the courteous tone the quiet little boy used, making the 9-year-old blush a little.

"Why are you always so polite, Cody?" Kari asked curiously.

The 3rd-grader DigiDestined smiled a little, forgetting about how left out he had felt earlier. "Grandpa says that next to prune juice manners are the most important thing a man can have."

"I brought this from my family's store. You want one?" Yolei asked, holding a chocolate covered rice ball out to Mimi.

"Is that what I think it is? A chocolate covered rice ball? I haven't had one since I was a kid!" she gasped, taking it from the Child of Compassion. Sara rolled her eyes at that. She sat a little apart from the others as always.

"What would you have?" Yolei giggled, turning to Hawkmon.

"I'll have whatever Armadillomon is having," he said, watching as the armadillo-like Rookie stuffed his mouth with a black roll.

"Oh, he's having sushi," Yolei replied with a laugh.

"Great! I'll have one sushi, please," Hawkmon said, holding up his wing.

"Right! Coming right at ya, buddy," Armadillomon said, throwing the bird Digimon one of the black rolls.

"No, Armadillomon! You must never throw food," Cody gasped as the sushi flew past Hawkmon and the Rookie ran after it.

"Wait, Hawkmon!" Yolei gasped, running after her Digimon partner.

"Wait, little sushi roll!" Hawkmon cried out, oblivious to his human partner's calls.

"We should go after them," Tommy suggested.

"No need. If they can't take care of themselves, then Yolei doesn't deserve to be a DigiDestined," Sara said a little coldly.

This made Kari angry. "What gives you the right so say that?!" she cried out, surprising TK who had only once or twice seen the Child of Light lose her temper.

"Simple. I'm stronger, faster and way better as a DigiDestined than Yolei will ever be."

"Sara!" Tommy said, a little shocked that his cousin was acting like this. Sure she didn't like being around people unless they were close friends, but the Himi cousins were part of a new team now and have to get along with their new team-mates for the sake of the Digital World. Besides, Tommy thought the others were fun to hang around with.

"What? Don't tell me you've never once thought these guys are weak. All they ever do is hide behind their Digimon partners who fight for them. Have they ever fought for themselves to survive? No, I didn't think so." With that, Sara stood up, swung her extra backpack over her shoulder, and walked away.

Terriermon looked torn between going after her human partner and staying to eat some more. Eventually, she decided loyalty to her partner was more important than her stomach. But only slightly!

Tommy sighed: "Guys, sorry about that. I honestly don't think you're cowards, because I wanted to get to know Bearmon after I met him and when Bearmon was in danger all I could think about was that I didn't wanna lose him. But Sara's different, she's afraid of getting close to anyone because she fears that her trust will be betrayed. That's why she tends to form opinions about people without really knowing them."

Cody nodded silently, actually understanding because he felt the same way as Tommy about his own partner, and Yolei had told him something similar the other day. Also, Cody didn't feel too bad about what Sara had said since he knew Yolei tended to base her opinion of people on first impressions too.

"That doesn't give her a right to call us weak. She doesn't even know what we went through three years ago!" TK said annoyedly.

"I know, and I'll talk to her." After a moment of silence, Tommy suggested tentatively: "But can we please split up to look for Yolei and Hawkmon?"

"What about Sara?" Mimi asked, being the nice girl she was.

"I know Sara. She'll take care of herself just fine. Plus, she has Terriermon with her."

"Okay, lets go find Yolei," Kari said, standing up. The DigiDestineds quickly cleared up what was left of their picnic and packed up their things and trash. Then everyone looked to Tommy for a plan.

It took a second before the goggle-head realised this. "Oh, right! All of us will walk some way to where Yolei and Hawkmon ran off to, then we'll split up. Mimi, Kari and Gatomon, you three go north. Me and Cody will go south with Bearmon and Armadillomon, and TK, Patamon and Joe will go west. We'll meet up back here in two hours, 'K?"

"OK!" the others chorused.

"Good. If there's any trouble, use the D-terminals. But I bet I didn't even need to tell ya that."

Soon, they split off like Tommy had planned.

* * *

"Finally! Hawkmon, what were you thinking?" Yolei panted, catching up to her Digimon partner. Hawkmon picked up the sushi roll and ate it. "Eww! You ate it off the ground!"

"Yolei, I'm a Digimon. We aren't exactly hygiene extremists," the Rookie deadpanned.

"Still… Umm, do you know where we are?" Yolei looked around, but everything looked more or less the same.

"Afraid not. I've never been to this Twin-Time Forest before."

"Great! So we're lost!" Yolei whined, crossing her arms.

"I suggest we start walking and hope that we run into a Digimon who knows where the others are," Hawkmon said, a little exasperated. Sure he loved his partner but she could really get on his nerves sometimes.

Yolei nodded, and they marched off. (The D-terminal was in Yolei's backpack, which was in the computer lab at the Real World like the others' school backpacks. So there was no way for her to contact them!)

"Yolei! Hawkmon!" Mimi and Kari called in unison. Gatomon jumped from tree to tree nimbly, her sharp eyes scanning the landscape for any sign of the two.

Suddenly, Gatomon's nose twitched. "Yuck! Whatever that is, it smells disgusting!" she muttered. Then, spotting something in the distance, she gasped. "Sara!"

"Huh? Where?" Mimi asked.

Gatomon pointed to the left. "Over there! I think she's fighting the Digimon Emperor!"

* * *

_Stupid DigiDestineds…. Know nothing about the Digital World… Shouldn't bother to help them…_ Sara thought annoyedly, feeling that she shouldn't have to adapt to working with a new team when her old one was so much better. Usually taunts and annoyances washed over her like water, but not when it came to Yolei. That girl just rubbed her the wrong way.

"How much longer are we gonna walk?" Terriermon interrupted the Warrior of Water's thoughts. "My feet are starting to hurt and I'm not even wearing shoes."

"I didn't ask you to follow me, did I?" Sara snapped, but immediately regretted it. She shook her head and gave the bunny a small smile. "Why did you, anyway?"

"Coz we're partners!" the Rookie replied as if it should have been obvious.

"Partners?"

"Yeah, remember?" Terriermon ran forward and jumped, clutching onto Sara's back and then climbed onto her head. "You and me are a team. I couldn't have armour digivolved the other day without you, remember? And being partners means we're friends for life!"

Sara smiled. _Maybe this partner thing isn't all that bad… Stop it, I _can't_ think like that! I won't betray Seirenmon and Plesiomon! _Sara pulled her newly modelled D-tector out of her shorts' pocket and started pushing the buttons.

"Watcha doing?" Terriermon asked.

"None of your business."

Terriermon pouted and considered bombing her partner with questions, but decided against it. Then she smiled mischievously. _I'll just play a prank on her at home, then!_

With the Rookie still on her head, Sara continued to walk until she found a sight that made her blood boil. She and Terriermon saw the Digimon Emperor whipping a horse Digimon with wings and a horn on its red and white head. It cried out in pain as blood trickled down its white body. Sara pressed one of her D-tector's buttons and the Digimon Analyzer screen popped up. Apparently, the horse Digimon was a Champion level by the name Unimon. _I remember Tommy telling me that Unimon usually are with their herd. That jerk must've separated this one from its family!_

Fury was burning in Sara's forest green eyes and she ran forward, tackling the Emperor to the ground. He gasped in shock at the sudden attack and turned to see the auburn-haired girl pinning him down to the ground.

"How dare you attack me!" the Emperor yelled.

"How dare I? I should be asking you that question," Sara retorted.

"Hey, you holding on there?" Terriermon asked as she ran over to the Unimon and helped it up by using her ears as wings. Unimon neighed and looked over to the human girl who had saved him from the abuse he was wrongly given.

"This is my domain and you're trespassing. Now get off of me and I might go easy on you," the Emperor said, struggling against the Warrior of Water a little. It surprised him that someone actually managed to handle him in a grapple.

"Do I look that dumb?" Sara asked rhetorically.

The Emperor then grabbed her shoulders while his legs wrapped around her waist as he turned them over, sending her onto her back but she struggled as they fought in the dirt.

"That girl is a DigiDestined?" Unimon asked.

"Yes, she is. Hurry and get out of here before you end up as a meetvurst," Terriermon urged half-jokingly. She rarely was serious about things. Unimon nodded and then took to the skies while the Emperor threw Sara off of him and he stood up with his whip at the ready.

"Sara!" Terriermon called as she went to help.

Another Digimon, a green caterpillar with pink-purple markings and matching little claw-feet, jumped down from a tree and spat out threads at the rabbit but she dodged them. "Sticky Net! I can't allow you to harm my Master," he said.

"Oh yeah? Then I guess you don't mind me hurting you," Terriermon laughed mischievously. She shot a lime green blazing blast at the bug Digimon from her mouth. "Bunny Blast!"

Sara stood up as she glared at the Emperor, who smirked at her. "I admire your defiance," he said.

"Well, I'm famous for it," Sara snapped, briefly recalling her confrontation of Lord Cherubimon when he had still been corrupt.

Spotting someone heading for them, the Emperor put two fingers into his mouth and whistled. An Airdramon that had a dark ring on showed up and he jumped onto its back.

"Hey! We're not done! Get back here, you coward!" Sara yelled, running after the skull-headed dragon. Only one problem: Airdramon and the Emperor were soon out of sight.

"Sara!" Kari called, and the Warrior of Water turned and saw the Child of Light, the Child of Sincerity and Gatomon arrive at the scene.

"What happened?" Mimi asked.

Shoving her hands into her pockets, the auburnette simply replied: "The Emperor was being a jerk to a Unimon and I gave him a piece of my mind."

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" Gatomon said to Wormmon, who used his Sticky Net attack to get up to a tree. To her surprise, Wormmon shot her and the others an apologetic look before going away.

"Was it just me, or did Wormmon not have a dark ring?" Terriermon asked.

"I think he didn't. And it was like he was sorry about something and wanted to tell us about it, but couldn't," Mimi said with her hand cupping her cheek. When she was the new girl in her American primary school, she had gotten good at observing people.

_I wonder why he would side with the Emperor then, _Kari and Sara thought. "Anyway, why're you here?" Sara asked, but her tone was neutral.

"We're looking for Yolei and Hawkmon," Kari replied, opening her D-terminal and sending a quick message to the others. "OK, I let the boys know we've found Sara and Terriermon. Now lets get moving."

Sara rolled her eyes but followed the others anyway. She couldn't care less if they never found Yolei, but Hawkmon was a different story so she was willing to help find them.

Soon the girls fell yelling as the ground shifted.

* * *

When Kari came to, she saw Yolei's face as the other girl shook her. "Thank goodness! I thought you guys were dead!" the Child of Compassion exclaimed once Kari's eyes had fully opened and the camera-girl sat up with a groan.

"What happened?" Kari asked, looking around. She saw the others laying nearby, waking up from all the shouting and shaking Yolei had done to them.

"We are in the night part of Twin-Time Forest," Hawkmon answered as everyone got up. "Yolei and I ended up here a few minutes ago, and then you all came here too."

Looking around and noticing that it looked like it was the middle of the night, Sara took her D-terminal out from her shorts' pocket and flipped it open then pressed a button to look at the time. It showed 11:39. "Weird. It's midday, but this place looks like it's midnight," the Warrior of Water murmured.

"Now I know why they call it the Twin-Time Forest," Gatomon stated, licking her fur to clean it from the dirt. The girls had landed in a trash pile.

They got off it, Mimi whining: "Ooh, this place stinks! And _look_ at what it's done to my clothes!"

Yolei nodded in agreement, thinking of her own reaction which had been exactly like her new idol's.

They walked past the trees trying to figure out a way back to the valley-like part of the forest. This part seemed more like a jungle, and a hot rainforest one at that.

On her perch atop Sara's head, Terriermon spotted something in the distance. "Look! A dark spiral!" she exclaimed, pointing at the black obelisk.

"Of course. The Digimon Emperor must have hidden it in the night part of Twin-Time Forest," Sara and Yolei said in realization. They blinked, looked at each other, then turned away from one another with a huff.

"Huh? Hey, it's my friends!" Mimi said happily as she walked forward with a wave of her hand, seeing a bunch of Otamamon and Gekomon coming towards them. But she didn't notice that all of the little Digimon were wearing dark rings!

Kari did, though. "Mimi, I don't think they remember you," she said, placing a hand on the older girl's shoulder.

The small frog- and tadpole-like Digimon lunged a them, but suddenly green and lavender wines wrapped around Mimi's head and upper body, then pulled her rapidly into a bush. The process was repeated with Kari and Gatomon jus as the two bearers of Light were jumping out of the slaves' way, then Yolei and Hawkmon. Sara and Terriermon were too busy fighting back against the Gekomon and Otamamon to notice before it was too late and they were pulled into the bushes by wines too. The slaves just charged on, going past them like a small angry mob.

"Palmon!" Mimi exclaimed happily, hugging the Rookie plant Digimon close in joy.

"Mimi, it is you! I missed you so much!" Palmon said.

* * *

Soon the group was walking towards the dark spire, Mimi and Palmon catching up on what had happened to each other over the three years. Once they were done, Mimi asked: "Palmon, would you like to come to the Real World with me? It'll be just like the old times, except we don't have to worry about a Digimon attacking the city."

"I'd love to, Mimi, but I can't. I promised the others I would be watching over this area. But I guess I wasn't doing a very good job," Palmon replied, her tone becoming sad.

"It's all right, Palmon," Kari said comfortingly.

The girls and Hawkmon then noticed that the horrible smell was getting stronger and they stopped walking. "It's that smell again," Kari stated absently.

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious," Sara muttered sarcastically.

"Dream Dust!" two mysterious voices cried out in the distance. Soon dirt, dust and left over food pieces came flying at the girls and Hawkmon. They screamed as a small layer of filth coated them.

"This is disgusting!" Mimi shrieked, trying to clean herself.

Laughter came from behind the trees and bushes that the attack came from. "That was great, brother," a male voice spoke up.

Another male voice replied: "You said it, brother."

"Show yourselves!" Sara shouted at the voices, clenching her fists.

Two man-size cockroaches came out from behind the safety of the forest. It was hard to see the black rings on their necks since they blended with their skin so well. "Hello ladies," both bugs spoke, "We're the Roachmon Brothers."

Hawkmon raised his one wing, stating annoyedly: "I'm a male Digimon."

Mimi huffed, putting her hands on her hips and shouting angrily: "And I'm pissed off! You two ruined my outfit!"

One of the brothers scuffed. "Like we care. We're just having fun."

"Don't you care that you're ruining this place?" Kari asked in disbelief.

The Roachmon Brothers shrugged, saying together: "Nope. Whatever." They raised their hands in the air, "Yard Sale Bomb!" Both brought their arms down and an old TV landed in front of the girls and Hawkmon.

The girls and Hawkmon looked up in the sky to see lots more landfill objects falling from the sky aimed at them. "Run!" Gatomon yelled out to the group. The girls and Hawkmon took off away from the Roachmon brothers. They dodged the falling garbage left, right and center. The brothers followed them, laughing.

"I'm sick of this!" Yolei exclaimed angrily, her short temper long lost. She pulled out her digivice from her skirt's pocket and held it in her hand firmly while shouting: "Digi-armour-energize!"

Kari and Sara followed suit, simultaneously saying: "Digi-armour-energize!"

"Hawkmon armour digivolve to… Halsemon, Wings of Compassion."

"Gatomon armour digivolve to… Nefertimon, the Angel of Light!"

"Terriermon armour digivolve to… Bucchiemon, the Water Pixie of Effervescence!"

The three Armour Digimon started fighting against the Roachmon Brothers, but the two dimwitted bugs were constantly flying in and out of the jungle's trees, making it hard to hit them with special attacks. Halsemon's Eagle Eye and Nefertimon's Rosetta Stone missed. Bucchiemon tried to slow their opponents down by using Draining Rain, but that only served to make her allies lose energy.

"Oh great! Now look what your partner did!" Yolei complained to Sara.

"My partner?! Yours can't even land a simple hit!" the Warrior of Water said angrily.

"It's not like Bucchiemon's doing any better! And at least Halsemon's trying!"

"Can you two please not argue right now?" Kari asked.

"Stay out of this!" Yolei and Sara snapped at the same time, glaring at each other despite addressing their words to Kari.

"This is awful," Mimi murmured, hugging herself and shaking her head. She remembered how Tai and Matt had used to fight all the time, and that thought wasn't exactly comforting.

_Flashback_

_"__Where you been, buddy?" 12-year-old Tai asked while MetalGreymon turned his head towards Agumon. Matt's eyes were as cold as ice as he just stood there watching Tai and Agumon run over to the blond and his Digimon partner._

_"Thanks for saving our necks, but did you have to cut it this close?" Agumon joked._

_MetalGarurumon's eyes glowed blue as he shot out two tiny laser beams at him, cutting the dino off._

_"What's he doing?" Tai demanded._

_"Hey, what is this?" Agumon asked._

_"What do you think? It's a challenge. You might want to digivolve and fast," MetalGarurumon growled._

_"What have you been eating out there in the forest? You want to fight me?" Agumon asked. The Rookie didn't understand why his friend would want to fight him; they were supposed to fight together against the bad guys!_

_His answer was getting two rockets fired off at him, but thankfully they didn't hit. It was close enough, though._

_"This is insane. Matt, what's going on? Is this some kind of joke?" Sora asked._

_"Matt, I don't know what he's doing, but call him off now!" Tai demanded._

_"No, Tai. I won't," Matt said. Unnervingly, his tone was dark and cold._

_"What did you say? You won't?" Tai asked, completely surprised. He had expected Matt to call MetalGarurumon off and explain why the armoured canine was acting strangely. But apparently the Mega wasn't the only strange one._

_"I'm warning you. Hurry up and digivolve into WarGreymon because I won't miss next time," MetalGarurumon warned, then snarled at Agumon with his sharp teeth shown. The threat was painfully clear._

_"I think he really means it," Agumon said to his partner, jumping away from the Mega._

_Everyone else stood frozen in shock and confusion over what was going on and how their friends had lost their minds. Izzy even silently wondered if Matt and MetalGarurumon were under someone's control like the dark gears controlled many innocent Digimon._

_"Well? Time's running out, Agumon," the Mega-level wolf said._

_"Tai, stop him!" TK called out to the goggle-head. He didn't like it when friends fought!_

_To the 9-year-old's dismay, Tai's answer wasn't very comforting: "I wish I could, but there's only one person who can stop him." He then turned his attention back to the little boy's brother. "Calm down, Matt. Don't get so bent out of shape. The last thing we need right now is a hothead with attitude. We've got more important things to think about." _

_Joe walked towards Matt with his hands held up peacefully. "Look, all I know is this stupid bickering is giving me a gigantic headache."_

_"Chill out," Matt replied uncaringly, but his eyes stayed glued to Tai._

_"Matt, have you forgotten that we have been chosen to be the DigiDestineds?" Joe asked, hoping this might bring the younger boy back to his senses. Unfortunately, Matt just scoffed with a smirk._

_"And would you mind telling me who exactly chose us for this dumb job anyway?" the blond asked, turning to the oldest of the group._

_"Uh, I uh…" the 14-year-old bluenette stuttered._

_"Come on, I want some answers and you can't seem to give them to me," Matt said, making him look off to the side._

_"You have a point there, but I–"Joe began, but was cut off by their group's leader._

_"Don't waste your time, Joe. Matt's just being a big spoiled brat," Tai said, his temper long lost. He clenched his gloved fists._

_"You're the brat. Why don't you go mind your own business?" Matt replied coldly, putting a gloved hand on his hip._

_"What's wrong with you is pretty easy to figure out. You're upset because you wanna be the boss," Tai said confidently, while Matt just smirked cruelly at him._

_"Yeah, like I wanna be boss of this sorry group. If any of you brainiacs wants to take charge, be my guest. I say we should just take care of ourselves," Matt said._

_Tai was shaking in anger as he gritted his teeth. For one thing, it annoyed him that he had been wrong about why Matt was acting like a big jerk. For another, the goggle-head was sure that they should stay together especially after everything that happened when Devimon had separated them._

_"Stop fighting you two. We've got to stick together," Sora said as she walked closer to Tai to stop him from lashing out._

_Still glaring at the Ishida boy, Tai replied annoyedly: "Don't look at me. Matt's the one who started it. He's a got a bug up his a–"_

_"Tai!" Sora scolded him before he cursed in front of Kari and TK._

_"Humph. I don't have to listen to this," Tai said as he turned around and started to walk off._

_"A bug up his what now?" Agumon asked as he followed, not realizing his human partner had been about to curse._

_"One moment," MetalGarurumon growled. He then jumped off in front of the duo of Courage, cutting them both off from leaving._

_"Don't push me too far," Tai said as he turned to Matt. He had just been about to take a walk to calm down his flared up temper but his so-called friend didn't even let him!_

_"Oh, I'm scared," Matt said sarcastically._

_"You better be scared. I'm getting really mad," Tai warned. The only reason he wasn't in Matt's face yet was because of Kari and TK. The latter had already witnessed many fights between the leader and the lonewolf, and Tai didn't want the little boy to see any more if he could help it._

_"Excuse me, but what are you going to do about it?" MetalGarurumon growled. When Tai took a step to the side, the armoured wolf moved in the way. "Stay right there."_

_"Get real, dude," Tai retorted in annoyance as Agumon came to stand in front of him._

_"Watch it, stand back!" the Rookie said both to the goggle-head and the Mega._

_MetalGarurumon then pounced as orange light filled the area. "Agumon warp digivolve to…WarGreymon!"_

_The newly-evolved Mega pushed MetalGarurumon back so Tai wouldn't get hurt. "There is no need for us to fight," he said._

_"I must," MetalGarurumon replied as he charged in, pushing WarGreymon back and then the two took to the air making leaves and branches fall down._

_Tears were forming in TK's eyes as he saw the wolf bite into the humanoid dino's arm while Matt watched on without a care as Tai stormed over to him with a look of pure rage._

_"What's the matter? You chicken?" Matt teased._

_"That's it!" Tai said as he punched the blond in the face._

_"Matt, I'm gonna tell Mom that you were fighting," TK said in a tattle tale way, hoping his brother would stop this. But he got disappointed._

_"Sorry, TK, but I have to do this," the Child of Friendship said as he punched Tai right back in the face._

_"Both of you stop it right now!" Joe called while the two Megas went on fighting above._

_"It's ridiculous," Izzy remarked._

_"You two are just making things worse," Sora said to the fighting boys._

_"He's gotta be taught a lesson and fast. Here, take this!" Tai said. The brunette then punched Matt so hard that the blond fell to the floor, making it harder for TK to hold back his tears._

Why do they have to fight all the time? I hate all of this!_ the Child of Hope thought, grabbing Patamon from the air and clutching the Rookie. Kari wasn't faring much better, staring at her trainers to avoid seeing the fighting and flinching whenever she heard the two 12-year-olds hit each other._

_Matt turned off of his back and went onto his hands and knees as Tai came over and grabbed him by the front of his sleeveless T-shirt._

_"I'm only doing this to honour the memory of all the brave Digimon that have helped us. They trusted us and believed in our commitment," Tai explained with tears in his eyes while thin trails of tears fell down Matt's face as he grunted and ground his teeth together. They were friends; neither honestly wanted to treat the other like an enemy, but with their hot tempers and clashing personalities fuelled by Cherrymon's words to Matt that was now getting hard. "We can't let them down!"_

_Matt then pushed the Child of Courage off and stood up to face him. "What if it was a mistake?" Matt asked as he punched Tai while some explosions went off above them from the two fighting Megas. WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon didn't want to fight one another either, but since their partners were fighting and it was what Matt wanted, they had to._

_"This is awful," Palmon said._

_"We have to stop them," Biyomon added._

_"Unfortunately, they're Mega level Digimon and there's nothing any of us could do about it," Tentomon pointed out unhelpfully._

_"Best thing for them is to duke it out," Gatomon said._

_"I just hate fighting and we can't let our friends destroy themselves" Gomamon said as he frowned at the Champion._

_"It's a dog eat dog world isn't it?" Gatomon mused._

_"They're not dogs," Gomamon said._

_"The deal is this; just sit and watch them take care of business." Gatomon said simply as she walked over to stand beside Kari and put her front paw on the little girl's hand comfortingly._

_"Oh, yeah? I don't have to like it!" Gomamon called after her._

_"Gomamon, get a grip. The last thing we need is anymore fighting around here," Tentomon said._

_Matt and Tai threw each other onto the ground as they rolled around, punching each other and flipping the other over as they tried to overpower one other._

_"Oh, I've had it!" 10 years old Mimi cried as she ran off._

_"Mimi!" Sora called._

_"I'm gonna sit here and stare at the flowers until everybody starts getting along," Mimi sobbed, facing a corner under a tree._

_"Oh, like that's going to help," Sora quipped as she walked over to the younger girl._

_End flashback_

"Come on, we need to work together," Kari said, going between the two arguing girls and holding up her hands in an attempt to calm them down.

"Why don't you tell that to Miss I-work-alone-and-treat-everyone-like-trash?" Yolei said, pointing at the auburnette with an accusing finger.

"Oh yeah? At least I'm not some computer geek who knows nothing about the Digital World!" Sara retorted.

"I wish I could help," Palmon murmured, looking down.

"This isn't your fault. Those two just are as bad as Tai and Matt," Mimi said, picking up her partner and hugging the Rookie comfortingly.

"Yard Sale Bomb!" the Roachmon Brothers chorused thrusting their arms down, and landfill objects started raining down on the girls and Halsemon again. They did their best to dodge the things, and Sara and Yolei put their argument on hold in favour of running off with the others.

"Look! Maybe we can trick them into destroying the dark spire?" Kari said, pointing at the black obelisk that was fairly near by now. The area was more spacious as well.

"Good idea, Kari. Lets do it," Nefertimon said, and the other two Armour Digimon nodded. She and Halsemon flew over to the Roachmon Brother while Bucchiemon jumped onto Halsemon's back.

"Hey, uglies! I bet you can't hit us even if you tried to for a million years!" the pixie yelled tauntingly.

"We'll see about that!" one Roachmon replied, and they started firing their special attacks at the trio. One broken mini-fridge hit the dark spire, making it crack.

"I feel stronger!" Palmon mused as she started to glow along with Mimi's digivice's screen.

"Palmon digivolve to… Togemon!"

The newly-evolved Champion joined the three Armour Digimon in fighting the Roachmon brothers.

Halsemon he rammed into one of the two Roachmon. He then took Roachmon out of the trash pile and let him plummet to the ground. Nefertimon used her Rosetta Stone attack on Roachmon.

Togemon was punching the other Roachmon, calling out: "Lightspeed Jabbing!" Togemon's punches pummelled Roachmon in the blink of an eye.

Suddenly, a woman wearing wolf-themed armour showed up from nowhere. She had shoulder-length silver hair and hazel eyes, and made a light beam sword appear from her metallic sword hilt. "Lobo Kendo!" the mysterious Digimon called out, hitting the dark rings around the Roachmon brothers' necks.

"Who is that?" Kari wondered out loud.

"She's gorgeous!" Mimi exclaimed, clapping her hands together.

"Totally!" Yolei agreed.

_Lobomon…_ Sara thought with a wistful smile that went unnoticed by the others.

The Warrior of Light then vanished into the jungle, ignoring Kari's and Nefertimon's calls of "Wait, who are you?".

Both Roachmon after the attacks landed next to each other, their dark rings now broken and gone. "I'm never listening to you again," one brother said to the other.

"What, this was your idea. Take the DigiDestineds to the Digimon Emperor, worst idea_ ever_," the brother countered.

"No, it was yours."

"No, it was yours."

"Yours!"

"Yours!"

"YOURS!"

"YOURS!"

"Just leave before I kick both your asses!" Bucchiemon snapped at the two. The Roachmon Brothers looked around them and saw that they had a pissed off Halsemon, Togemon, Bucchiemon and Nefertimon surrounding them. Not to mention the furious looks they received from the four humans.

The brothers took to the sky despite their injuries, screaming in fear.

Kari sighed in relief: "It's over." Then, remembering the mysterious warrior, she thought: _I wonder why that Digimon left? I have a strange feeling about her._

"Come on, lets go home," Nefertimon said.

Kari and Yolei climbed onto their partners' backs while Mimi rode on one of Togemon's red boxing gloves. Bucchiemon dedigivolved to Terriermon and hopped tiredly onto Sara's shoulder as the Warrior of Water started walking. The human girls looked at their digivices, finding coloured dots that represented the boys' and heading towards them.

No-one noticed a dark ring that had a camera on it floating in the shadows.

* * *

In a dark room where different sized monitors covered one wall, the Digimon Emperor sat on his chair and chuckled. "Doesn't matter," he stated to himself, referring to the loss of the Roachmon Brothers. _Those two ere too stupid to be useful slaves anyway. I should have just gotten rid of them._

He zoomed in on one monitor's picture of Lobomon. "Interesting… My data banks have nothing about this Digimon. Oh well, I'll find out what this powerful Digimon is and then make her my slave."

The Emperor started chuckling evilly.

* * *

To be continued...

* * *

Yikes! Koji better look out! Oh, and what do you think of Bucchiemon's introduction phrase?

I forgot to explain this in the previous ep.: imagine canon Seirenmon from Digimon Wikia combined with Ranamon for my fic's Seirenmon. I had to combine them since original Seirenmon doesn't seem very water Digimon like in my opinion, plus she has no attacks so I'll give her Ranamon's and Calmaramon's instead. I'm also gonna put a picture and bio of her into Deviantart when I can.

I am NOT bashing the other DigiDestineds. Sara just doesn't want to be in a new team coz she doesn't want things to change. She feels everything's perfect (more or less) the way it is. Just thought I'd point that out in case someone flames me for what my OC's thinking.

I figure (based on the show's episode 1) there are some dark rings that are only for monitoring purposes. Plus, I think some enslaved Digimon keep their personality and others don't. I think it depends on the Digimon, if the Emperor figures the Digimon doesn't resist much then they don't have to become a mindless drone. That explains the Roachmon Brothers' behaviour and how in episode 2 the slaves hadn't a blank memory on what had happened


End file.
